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Google Maps Now Lets You Explore Your Local Planets and Moons (cnet.com)
Google has added three planets and nine moons to Google Maps. "The heavenly bodies include Saturn moons Dione, Enceladus, Iapetus, Mimas, Rhea and Titan, and Jupiter moons Europa, Ganymede and Io," reports CNET. "Google also added dwarf-planets Pluto and Ceres and full-planet Venus." From the report: Once inside Google Maps for planets, you can spin the space objects around, get more information on their place names and zoom in for a closer look. The new worlds are possible thanks to imagery from NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's dearly departed Cassini spacecraft sent back a treasure trove of views of Saturn's moons. If you have a few moments to spare, fire up a browser, go to your current location on Google Maps, enter satellite mode and hit the zoom-out button until you've left the planet and are "floating" in space. A list of available planets and moons pops up on the side and you're off on your space adventure.
... orange? They always draw the surface orange or red.
Venus's surface is primarily basalts. Which are dark gray. More specifically MORBs, and in particular the gabbro family. Daylight is yellowish-orange, but the surface is not.
Anyway, it's a rather neat tool, so kudos to them for making it :)
I'll BUILD someone to replace you. Some kind of gamma-powered monster, with a heart as black as coal!
Okay, that's kind of annoying - they appear to only have topo maps for Earth, the Moon, Mercury and Mars.
Meh - even Celestia is better. Of course, it doesn't run in your browser....
I'll BUILD someone to replace you. Some kind of gamma-powered monster, with a heart as black as coal!
...Your Local Planets and Moons.
And destroy them.
They're just preparing supporting material for their Frame Shift Drives (http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Frame_Shift_Drive). Pretty soon you'll be able to hail an Uber to get there.
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
I, for one, welcome our mooning google-overlords!
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
Where's the "directions" - button?
Oh, and can users add local businesses?
someone will find that article and think. Why can they only get access to look at plantes local to them and not the ones local to everybody else.
Planetary travel takes too long using the conventional routes that Google Maps is likely to select, Waze might be the answer to this. There is the downside risk that it will route you through a planet's core to save a few hours of spaceflight.
I was looking for my moon (Well, the moon from my planet) and all I saw was a moon from a place called Dirt or Earth. Looked it up and the only info I saw was "Mostly Harmless".
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Oh no, another Starbucks.
Can I VPN in if I am not local? Anyone know of a free one that works well?
Yes, but can you plan a trip to Mars ?
I always wanted a good long look at Uranus.
Okay, that's kind of annoying - they appear to only have topo maps for Earth, the Moon, Mercury and Mars.
Hereby nominated for the "21st century problems" award...
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Well are there streets on Venus or Mimas?
Like when that hyperspace bypass will finally be completed?
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
Q: Why is starting a comment in the Subject: field incredibly irritating?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
For reasons...
...why the FUCK would you even link to CNET? What the hell, is this HuffPost now?
The only links that should be present are GOOGLE MAPS BLOG: https://www.blog.google/produc... and the gmaps link itself (which the OP did link).
-Styopa
It looks like they took the street view cameras to the space station, that's pretty cool. I'm sure that's old news at this point though. But I appreciate some of the place names on Pluto. Cthulhu Regio, Morgoth Macula, Balrog Macula, etc.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
It would be cool if they showed the atmosphere like they do with Earth, where if you're zoomed out far enough it will show the cloud layer. They could have done that with Venus and Titan, show the atmosphere from far out but when you get closer it fades and you can see the surface.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
You're right! My local planets and moons aren't the same as yours, Earthling.
With the atmosphere of Venus being as thick as it is, how you would see the surface when standing on it is considerably affected by the air. It would not look dark gray -- it did not look dark gray to Venera 3 when the probe landed. Comparison: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/publi...
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The space station street view is actually of a ground-based replica at the Johnson Space Center.
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WEB OF LIES!
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
You can't have another "solar" system, there's only one star system around Sol and we're in it.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.