NASA releases interactive map of Mars

NASA launched a new interactive tool that allows you to view Mars in great detail and navigate between points of interest on the surface with a single mouse click. The only thing missing is a sonorous name: Global CTX Mosaic of Mars is not very easy to remember.

The map was compiled from 110,000 images taken by the Context Camera (CTX) of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter interplanetary station. Each pixel covers about 25 m² of the Red Planet's surface. This image of Mars has the highest resolution ever made, with 5.7 trillion pixels. If you print this as a picture, you can cover the entire American Rose Bowl stadium with a capacity of 92.5 thousand people. For comparison: the Moscow "Olympic" can accommodate up to 35 thousand spectators.

The creation of this "mosaic" from individual images required tens of thousands of hours of painstaking work over 6 years. It turned out to be so accurate that during the beta testing alone, 120 scientific papers that refer to this map passed the test. At the same time, it is simple enough to be used not only by scientists, but also by ordinary enthusiasts without special knowledge.

Project Manager Jay Dixon noted that he wanted to create a visual tool that can be used by both schoolchildren and his 78-year-old mother.

The result is a site with a map of Mars, which can be navigated using the mouse or keyboard keys, or switching between suggested POIs - including Perseverance, Curiosity, Spirit, and Opportunity.

The site allows you to bookmark any location, as well as find out the exact latitude and longitude of a particular point. Distance measurement is also available.

Global CTX Mosaic of Mars→