Virtual Worlds

Google Mars is my second favorite virtual world. The picture above is of Google Mars and where the Mars odyssey rover currently is. Being able to view the location of the rover in real time is amazing to me since, just a few years ago, the only way to know where the rovers or landings occurred was to check the NASA website and look at a static map. Now we can look at worlds that are not are own and get a good fell for how they look without even seeing them up close in person, but up close with the aid of a satellite. Just being able to have a non-static map to the galaxy is extremely fun for someone like me who loves astronomy. Being able to view various moons and how the planet they orbit looks from them is absolutely amazing to me. I never thought we would be able to view the moons of Jupiter or Saturn without having to look in a book at a couple of pictures to get a sense of how the moon orbits its parent planet.