Mar 13, 2006, 12:22 GMT
Washington - The first hint that something special was cooking on Google early Monday was the Martian and a telescope built into its signature logo.
In collaboration with NASA researchers at Arizona State University, Google claim to have created some of the most detailed scientific maps of Mars ever made.
By 0800 GMT, Google was to officially launch mars.google.com, which offers a dizzying trip across the red planet, its craters and sweeping expanses, according to a press statement released Monday by Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility.
The website is similar to the Earth visitation website launched last year, but does not provide quite the neighbourhood details available there. The smallest details are 230 metres across on the new website, according to the statement.
The Mars website is the joint project of internet giant Google and the university's space unit.
The image appears in picture-puzzle fashion, filling in the screen in 17,000 individual blocks that connect smoothly to form a seamless picture.
The photos were taken by ASU's Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, a multi-band space camera that recorded in 15 visible and infrared colours.
The camera is on board an older Mars orbiter, the Odyssey spacecraft, which is still circling Mars.
Just last week, the newest Mars probe successfully negotiated entry into orbit around Mars to take yet another closer look at the planet thought to be most like Earth, and the launch of the website Monday makes use of the renewed interest in the planet.
'Mars scientists the world over use THEMIS photos,' said ASU planetary geologist Phil Christensen, who designed the camera. 'It's great that thanks to Google Mars, now everyone, everywhere, can explore this neighbour world using their own computer browser.'
ASU and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are also releasing a movie Monday, Flight into Mariner Valley, which narrates a simulated flight through Valles Marineris, a system of canyons located just south of the Martian equator.
In addition to the Mariner Valley trip, visitors to the website will be able to take detailed visits to the giant volcano Olympus Mons and the landing sites for the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
Christensen said that the close-up looks were 'more than just a spectacular sight.'
'It's also a geological history book of Mars that we've finally begun to open and read.'
Astronomers are making increasing use of the internet to engage the public in their projects. NASA for example is posting on the internet images of material collected by the mission Stardust and returned to earth in January, hoping that qualified internet users will be able to help them find some of the minuscule particles.
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