One new interactive mosaic of marsA recent release by NASA reveals “fascinating details” of the Martian surface. Impact craters, cliffs, and even dust vortex roads are some of the elements that can be seen in images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
Created over six years by researchers at the Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), this program consists of 110,000 images taken by the spacecraft’s context camera (CTX). Photos occupy 25 m² of surface area per pixel.
In the development of the project, an algorithm was also used to combine images of the Red Planet recorded since 2006. But technology couldn’t put them all together and required human intervention to manually collect the 13,000 photos.
Highest resolution spherical image of Mars ever taken, the mosaic has a resolution of 5.7 trillion pixels. If printed, the 3D map will cover the entire Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena (USA), which seats more than 90,000 and hosted the 1994 World Cup final between Brazil and Italy.
Visiting Mars Without Leaving Home
Image processing scientist Jay Dickson, who led the team that created the interactive Mars mosaic, says the project was born to be accessible. “School-age kids can now use it. My mom, who just turned 78, can now use it. The goal is to reduce barriers for people interested in exploring Mars,” he detailed.
To visit the surface of the Red Planet, go to the Global CTX Mosaic of Mars website and check out the image. There are buttons that take the internet user directly to areas such as Jezero crater discovered by the Ingenuity helicopter and Perseverance rover, and Olympus Mons, the highest volcano in the Solar System.
Source: Tec Mundo

I’m Blaine Morgan, an experienced journalist and writer with over 8 years of experience in the tech industry. My expertise lies in writing about technology news and trends, covering everything from cutting-edge gadgets to emerging software developments. I’ve written for several leading publications including Gadget Onus where I am an author.