Image: Google/NASA
If you, like me, are tired of this world — these people — tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives, Google now allows you explore 16 other planetary bodies that are more serene than this one.
Yesterday, Google announced that it has added 13 new worlds to its digital recreation of our solar system. The site previously only provided virtual tours of our Moon, Mars, and the International Space Station. But now Google has added Mercury, Venus, Pluto, and ten moons, many of which were captured by spacecraft Cassini during its 20-year mission that ended as it plunged into Saturn on September 15.
In order to create this vessel for digital galactic tourism, Google used images collected by NASA and the European Space Agency, and enlisted planetary mapper and artist Björn Jónsson to help meld those images into maps.
Google allows you to grab the planets and spin them around, so you can view them fully illuminated, or see their dark side with the sun in the background. Some maps allow users to zoom in on geological landmarks.
Image: Google/NASA
Check out all those lines. Europa looks like it has seen some shit.
Image: Google/NASA
Ceres’ Piuku crater looks like a great place to not check Twitter or to just die in space.
Image: Google/NASA
I like to imagine diving into Titan’s methane lakes. The spot Elpis Macula was named after the Greek goddess of happiness and hope. It seems like a good place to go when you have little of either.
All you need to do to try the new feature is to click the Space page or to go to the regular Google Maps satellite view and zoom out until you break through the atmosphere. Then Google gives you the option to zip over to Titan, Ceres, Ganymede, Europa, or whatever raw and peaceful celestial body you’d rather be on right now.
[Google]