You are probably familiar with Google Earth, the satellite image website that lets you zoom in from space on any site on the planet. If you aren't familiar with the site, you should check it out immediately. No Roman emperor or god on Mount Olympus could command such wonders as the poorest of citizens with an airport connection or a card to his local library. But even if you have seen Google Earth, have you checked out Google Mars? Through NASA and the Hubble Telescope we can see wonders so grand that mere words cannot describe a millionth of their splendor; the surface of distant stars, the creation of new suns, millions of galaxies billions of years distant.
Google Mars lets us zoom in on the Red Planet as if it were in our living rooms, and not a barely visible red speck in the night sky some 100 million miles away. You can look at Mars photographed in visible light or infrared or you can enjoy the false-color relief map which doesn't show any canals, but which does show plain signs of crater impacts, flowing water, and mountains over ten miles high.
Right Click on the NASA images of Mars above to see them full-sized. Click here for Google Earth, download required, but worth the effort. Click here for Google Mars, no download necessary.
