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Mars Comes to Life in 3-D, Thanks to NASA and Microsoft

Worldwide Telescope Mars Imagery
Microsoft and NASA have teamed up to bring you and your humble desktop PC some of the highest-resolution images of Mars currently available. Using a combination of satellite imagery and elevation models, Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope project has created an impressively detailed 3-D map of the surface of the Red Planet. The interactive tour, which simulates flying through Martian canyons and provides extreme surface detail (provided by the Mars rovers), took three years and over 100 computers to process and assemble. Its information has been stitched together from several different sources, including Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), the 40-year-old Viking probes and the still-flying Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Those who wish to explore the Martian surface can download the free desktop client (Windows only, of course) or use the Silverlight-powered Web-based version. We had some issues with the Web client on our Linux and Mac machines, so you non-Microsoft fans might be a little disappointed. Still, it's worth checking out if you have even a passing curiosity about our sister planet. [From: NASA, via: Popular Sciencei]

Tags: 3-d, 3d, exploration, mars, MarsRover, microsoft, mola, nasa, space, top, viking, WorldwideTelescope

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