A source for high-res maps of celestial bodies

[StratoK]

Hi there!

In case you ever wondered where you could get the original images of the various mapping-sattelites that circle the planets in our solar system, this website is for you.

You can get a preview version which is 1024x512 pixels, or you could get the whole image. The latter varies from about 2 up to 13 GB in size, depending on the body.

Sometimes you have to search quite a bit, but these maps are definitely there.

The link is as follows:

http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/search/

Have fun

Edited April 29, 2014 by StratoK

[Streetwind]

The gigantic Mars Viking MDIM2.1 Colorized Global Mosaic map was also made available on Gigapan by Doug Ellison - just in case you don't feel like downloading a 12GB raw file that can't even be opened by common image viewer applications

That website in general is a nice source for panoramic shots of science vessels and rovers on other celestial bodies.