Thanks to the Mars Odyssey probe and 21,000 high-resolutions photographs it took of the planet’s surface, we now have the best map ever made of Mars – and you can check it out online right now!
The map has been put together by Arizona State’s Mars Space Flight Facility, weaving together all 21,000 images into a single amazing map of Mars. The map covers the entire planet surface as though it had been flattened out and spread out onto a 2D surface, with features visible that are as small as just a few hundred feet. Best of all, the researchers are looking for everyone to pitch in and make the map better – anyone can help with the task of hand-aligning the images so that they overlap perfectly, instead of the relatively rough job the computer program did.
The map is available both as an interactive, zoomable map and, for more advanced users, in super high resolution chunks available for individual download.
