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.

Comments

How did I know that they were going to color Venus

[Rei]

... 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 :)

Google Maps Now Lets You Explore

[Anonymous Coward]

...Your Local Planets and Moons.

And destroy them.

I'm holding out for the Waze version

[Photonmaker]

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.

Re:How did I know that they were going to color Ve

[Kjella]

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...