The POT has released a new interactive map that allows anyone to explore the surface and all the features of Mars. Using the map you will be able to distinguish surprising characteristics that The surface of the Red Planet, including craters, ancient river channels, and traces of dust swirls, are part of it.
The 5.7 trillion pixel mosaic is truly huge and took six years and tens of thousands of hours to develop, made up of 110,000 images.
“I wanted something that was accessible to everyone”said Jay Dickson, the imaging scientist who led the project. “Kids can use this now. My mother, who just turned 78, can use this now. The goal is to lower the barriers for people interested in exploring Mars.”Add.
The only parts of Mars that are not represented in the map 3D are those that the camera had not photographed when the project began, or those that were obscured by clouds or dust.
“The goal is to lower the barriers for people interested in exploring Mars”
The finished product, formally known as Global CTX Mosaic of Mars, it covers 99.5% of the surface of Mars, and each of its 5.7 trillion pixels corresponds to 25 square meters of land.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbite (MRO)r has been studying the red planet since 2006 and CTX, along with High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and Mars Color Imagerhave provided this incredible information about the surface of the planet.
“For 17 years, MRO has been revealing Mars to us as no one has seen it before”added mission project scientist Rich Zurek of JPL. “This mosaic is a wonderful new way to explore some of the images we’ve collected”Add.
It’s really quite an eye-catching way to view Mars. For example, As you head towards Gale Crater, you can see the path Curiosity has traveled from the POT on his ascent to Mount Sharp, and you can see the carved valley ahead. The rover has yet to study it, but it has detected debris that has come loose due to water and landslides.
In addition to being entertaining, the new Mars map is also truly useful for science: a beta version released in 2018 has already been cited in more than 100 scientific papers.