Google goes to Mars
Not only can the ubiquitous search engine Google supply information, images and other Earth-bound data quickly, it can now also provide views of Mars.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based, company has worked with NASA researchers in compiling visible, infrared and elevation views of Mars, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
The project, available at mars.google.com, moves the search company into an interplanetary mode, having previously offered satellite views of the Earth and the moon.
"It was a very interesting and creative and cool way to apply technology we already had to another planet," said Chikai Ohazama, product manager for GoogleEarth.
The company, according to one blog, plans to obtain images of the other planets of the solar system and, in advance of that, has secured domain names such as GoogleMercury, GoogleVenus and GoogleJupiter, the Post reported. Google, however, will have to wait until satellite images of those other planets are available.
"We don't have anything to announce about other planets at this time," a Google spokeswoman told the Post.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International