Google Maps Now Lets You Explore Your Local Planets and Moons (cnet.com) 53
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.
How did I know that they were going to color Venus (Score:5, Interesting)
... 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 :)
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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....
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Re:How did I know that they were going to color Ve (Score:5, Funny)
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...
A: Because it breaks the flow of a message (Score:1)
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What's the most annoying thing on usenet?
> Q: Why is starting a comment in the Subject: field incredibly
> irritating?
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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.
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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... [usra.edu]
Google Maps Now Lets You Explore (Score:4, Funny)
...Your Local Planets and Moons.
And destroy them.
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Oh, and can users add local businesses?
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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.
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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!
classic (Score:2)
I, for one, welcome our mooning google-overlords!
incomplete (Score:2)
Where's the "directions" - button?
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I asked for turn by turn directions to Mars, and it took me to Elon Musk's estate?
Funny, I asked the same question and the hit Google gave me was a cul-de-sac in a little village south of Lyon in France. ... uhumm... a brothel in Berlin.
Mercury, the hit Google gave me was a tour operator in San Francisco
Venus, the hit Google gave me was
Saturn, the hit Google gave me was Saturn Electronics in Belchford, UK.
Neptune, the hit Google gave me was the Neptune hotel, in Weybridge, London, UK.
Uranus, Aapparently there is a place in Paris called IBM Uranus.
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I BM Ur anus? I feel sorry for the people who work there.
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You can't have another "solar" system, there's only one star system around Sol and we're in it.
One day, (Score:2)
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.
I'm holding out for the Waze version (Score:5, Funny)
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I hear that's coming soon. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at the local planning department on Alpha Centauri for 50 years now!
Comment removed (Score:3)
Re: Not true (Score:1)
That's out of date: now it says "Please do not touch".
Let's chec out the moon. (Score:1)
Oh no, another Starbucks.
What if I'm not local? (Score:2)
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Trip planning ? (Score:1)
Yes, but can you plan a trip to Mars ?
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Do they include timelines? (Score:2)
Venusville (Score:2)
For reasons...
Sorry, but (Score:2)
...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... [www.blog.google] and the gmaps link itself (which the OP did link).
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