21,000-image Mars map

Via io9, Arizona State University has assembled the highest-resolution Mars map to date, the images drawn from 21,000 pix shot by the Mars Odyssey orbiter’s THEMIS camera.

The maps show Mars as if sliced from a globe, unwrapped and flattened out on a table. Nearly 21,000 individual images have been smoothed, blended, fitted together and cartographically controlled to make a giant mosaic that web viewers can zoom into and scroll around. The few missing pieces show where clouds and poor lighting have thus far prevented map-quality imaging; these places are high on mission planners’ must-image target list.

Interactive zoomable map