Google space image map. Pyramids and the Face on Mars

  • 07.08.2020

According to many astronauts, there is nothing more beautiful than the view of our planet from the outside. When the Earth resembles a large balloon, on which snow-white clouds, gray rocks and the blue expanse of endless ocean waters are located. This article will provide various online maps and 3D globes of the Earth. To use them, there is no need to download additional software, as is the case with Google Earth. The maps are interactive, so you can view them online right from these pages.

This is a 3D sample globe made up of fairly detailed raster photo textures that were created using a NASA satellite. To rotate the globe, hold down the left mouse button. To change the scale of the map, scroll the mouse wheel - up will zoom in, down - zoom out.

If you scale an area on the globe very close, you will get a not very high-quality image. This is due to the low resolution of most of the pictures taken. This approach to creating a globe ensures fast loading of textures by the browser. If good quality images were used, your browser would take a long time to load them due to the large size.

Virtual 3D Earth Globe Sample Online

On the network you can find many services that offer to view and study the 3D globe map of the Earth in an online browser. This model is a three-dimensional globe on which we can find areas of cities and states, settlements and even streets and buildings. Such an interactive globe is great for zooming. It's all about the vector textures that are used for this model, so you can scale the globe without loss of quality and see different objects on it. Some sites even allow you to see the name of the streets and house numbers.

Globe Giovanni Maria Cassini displays a historical map of the world

A very interesting specimen is a historical globe. It shows us a view of the planet Earth, as people who lived at the end of the 18th century looked. The author of this globe is considered Giovanni Maria Cassini, who created it back in 1790. The globe is interactive, like the previous ones. With it, you can also rotate the globe, zoom in and out. Here you can even find the routes of the expeditions of James Cook. They are marked on the globe in different colors.

Google Maps is a mapping service that provides satellite interactive maps of the Earth online.

Google Maps is one of the most detailed digital maps in the world today. Wherever you are, having a smartphone, tablet or laptop with you, you can find a route to any object on the map, find the nearest cafe, library, bank branch, etc. The map is very similar to any online 3D earth globe.

To create a route anywhere on the map, open Google Maps :


To find any place, country, city, village, open Google Maps again. Enter the desired object in the search bar and press "Enter" or the magnifying glass icon.


The map will immediately display the location you entered. On the left in the block you can find basic information on the found place on the map. Here is the current temperature, local time and other interesting facts.

Yandex Maps - satellite maps of the Earth in 3D online

Yandex, the most famous search engine in Russia, has its own interactive map service - Yandex Maps. They allow you to find the right place, build routes with any points on the map, print any site, view the street panorama, provide a map API and much more. There is an interesting section - people's maps, where you can independently edit any objects, houses, gardens, streets, wells, etc., after passing moderation, they will be on the Yandex Maps service.

To find any point on the planet:


With the help of Yandex Maps, you can, like a 3D globe model online, find any point on our planet Earth. To do this, you need to enter the name of the settlement in the search bar or point with the mouse directly on the map.


Google Maps and Google Earth are the most famous and popular mapping services in the world. They open up the world to tens and hundreds of millions of people, make it more understandable and close. And now such maps will become more realistic - Google Corporation has announced the transition Google Maps v 3D format.


Google Street View online service for many years allows us to see in three-dimensional mode all the most interesting places in the world - city streets, the White House in Washington, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean.



But Google Corporation recently announced an innovation that will be equipped with this mapping service. Thanks to this innovation, it will be possible to see in three-dimensional mode not only the streets of cities, but also these cities as a whole.

This will happen due to the combination of satellite images, aerial photography and photographs from ground level. All these frames will be rendered in such a way that a complete 3D model of the cities and buildings on their streets will be obtained.



Google promises that by the end of this year, all more or less large cities in the world, with a total population of more than 300 million people, will receive their three-dimensional models in the Google Maps service. The main cities of Europe, America and Asia are already available in 3D format.

According to representatives of Google Corporation, their main goal in creating a three-dimensional service in Google Maps was the desire to provide users with the opportunity to look at the world from a bird's eye view. After all, every person dreamed of flying over the streets, and now this eternal dream of a person is coming true. Albeit in virtual mode.

Satellite maps from Google are popular. This is a convenient and practical tool that allows you to view the planet at any scale. The satellite image reveals details: small streets and lanes near the house, cities, countries and continents. This was made possible thanks to satellite imagery.
Earlier to receive pictures from space shooting with a television camera with signal transmission to the station or shooting with a special photographic camera, the pictures of which were displayed on film, were used. Today, modern space technologies allow you to look at the planet thanks to the scanning mechanism embedded in the satellites.

Satellite map: application and purpose

At present, the real-time satellite world map is applied in many areas: analyzing the state of agricultural fields, forests, the ocean, and identifying the location of friends using a smartphone. For these resources, a Google satellite map is used.
The main purpose of using satellite images of the world from Google remains navigation. The site presents a world diagram with the display of continents, states, cities, streets and tracks. This helps to orientate in the area, evaluate its landscape and simply travel the Earth without leaving home.

Quality of world map images online from satellite

The highest resolution images are available for the largest cities in Ukraine, America, Russia, Belarus, Asia, Europe and Oceania with a population of over a million people. For settlements with a smaller number of inhabitants, images are available in a limited number and of poorer quality.
Despite this, everyone can see in detail the territory of their house, nearby streets, see photos of the planet from almost anywhere. Pictures reveal placement:

  • cities, towns, villages,
  • streets, lanes
  • rivers, seas, lakes, forest zone, desert, etc.

The good quality of cartographic images allows you to examine the landscape of the selected area in detail.

Features of Google maps from the satellite:

Google satellite maps help to see in detail objects that are difficult to assess on conventional charts. Satellite images preserve the natural shape of the object, its size and colors. Ordinary, classic maps before printing and circulation undergo editorial study to match the scale, as a result of which the natural colors of the area and the shapes of objects are lost. Naturalness is preserved on cartographic images.
In addition, on the map you can quickly find the city of interest in any country. The diagram has a column in which in Russian you can indicate the country, city and even the house number. In a second, the chart will zoom in and display the location of the given object and those that are next to it.

Satellite world map mode

Satellite images have the ability to switch to world map mode. It helps to view the territory on the surface of the planet, to get as close as possible to the selected object, to consider the layout of the location. This mode allows you to quickly and conveniently plan a trip route, move around the city, find sights, etc.
By specifying the house number, the chart will display its location relative to the city center in a second. It is also possible to lay a route from the initially specified object. To do this, click on the appropriate button and enter the address.

Earth map from satellite to site

the site provides users with the opportunity to use a real-time satellite map for free. For convenience, the map is divided into countries. To search for a specific city or get acquainted with the area of ​​​​the state, click on the one you are interested in and start your “travel”. The service is constantly improving, work is underway to place high-resolution satellite images of small settlements.
The good quality of online satellite cartographic images posted on our website helps to quickly find the necessary object, examine the landscape, estimate distances between cities, find out the location of forests, rivers, seas and oceans. Together with Voweb, traveling around the world has become even more accessible.

Google Maps is a leader among modern mapping services that provide satellite interactive maps online. At least the leader in the field of satellite imagery and in the number of various additional services and tools (Google Earth, Google Mars, various weather and transport services, one of the most powerful APIs).

In the field of schematic maps, at some point, this leadership was “lost” in favor of Open Street Maps, a unique Wikipedia-style mapping service where each volunteer can enter data on the site.

However, despite this, the popularity of Google Maps remains perhaps one of the highest of all other mapping services. Part of the reason is that it is in Google Maps that we can find the most detailed satellite photos for the most extensive regions of any country. Even in Russia, such a large and successful company as Yandex cannot surpass the quality and coverage of satellite photographs, at least in their own country.

With Google Maps, anyone can view satellite photos of the Earth for free from almost anywhere in the world.

Image quality

The highest resolution images are usually available for the largest cities in the world in America, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Asia, Oceania. Currently, high-quality imagery is available for cities with more than 1 million inhabitants. For smaller cities and other localities, satellite images are only available in limited resolution.

Opportunities

Google Maps or "Google Maps" was a real discovery for Internet users and indeed for all PC users, giving an unheard-of and previously unseen opportunity to look at their home, their village, cottage, lake or river where they rested in the summer - from a satellite. To see it from above, from such an angle, from which it would be impossible to see it under any other circumstances. The discovery, the very idea of ​​giving people easy access to satellite photographs, fits harmoniously into the overall Google concept of "easy access to all users to any information on the planet."

Google Maps allows you to see from the satellite at the same time those things and objects that cannot be observed at the same time when observed from the ground. Satellite maps differ from conventional maps in that on simple maps, the colors and natural shapes of natural objects are distorted by editorial processing for further publication. However, all the naturalness of nature and shooting objects, natural colors, shapes of lakes, rivers, fields and forests are preserved in satellite photographs.

Looking at the map, one can only guess what is there: a forest, a field or a swamp, while on a satellite photo it is immediately clear: objects are usually round or oval in shape of a unique marsh color and there are swamps. Light green patches or areas in the photo are fields, while dark green are forests. With sufficient experience of orientation in Google Maps, you can even distinguish between coniferous forest or mixed: coniferous has a more brown tint. Also on the map you can distinguish specific broken lines piercing the forests and fields of the vast Russian expanses - these are railways. Only by looking from a satellite can one understand that railways affect the natural landscape that surrounds them much more than roads. Also, in Google Maps, it is possible to overlay maps with the names of regions, roads, settlements on a national scale and the names of streets, house numbers, metro stations on a city scale on a satellite image of an area or city.

Map Mode and Satellite View Mode

In addition to satellite images, it is possible to switch to the "map" mode, in which it is possible to view any territory on the Earth's surface or to study in detail the layout and location of houses in any more or less large city. In the "map" mode, it is especially convenient to plan moving around the city if you have already seen enough satellite views of your city.

The search function by house number will easily point you to the desired house, giving you the opportunity to "look around" the area around this house and how you can drive up / approach it. To search for the required object, it is enough to type in Russian in the search bar a query like: "City, street, house number" and the site will show you the location of the object you are looking for with a special marker.

How to use Google Maps

To get started, open a location.

To move around the map, left-click on the map and drag it in any order. To return to the original position, press the centering button located between the four direction buttons.

To enlarge the map - click on the button "+" or roll the mouse roller when the cursor is over the map. You can also enlarge the map double click mice in the place you are interested in.

To switch between satellite, mixed (hybrid) view and map, use the corresponding buttons in the upper right corner of the map: Map / Satellite / Hybrid.

In order to see what the most popular places on our planet look like in stereo 3D, now you need quite a bit. It is enough to stock up on 3D glasses (anaglyph), open Google Maps - and the world in 3D is in your palm.

To try out the capabilities of the 3D service, just go to maps.google.com and follow these steps:

  • select a figure of a man on the screen on the left and drag it to any of the streets
  • if the street under the cursor is blue, you can release the mouse button; after that you will see a view of the surrounding area
  • the image can be viewed in different directions, examining buildings, landscapes and other objects within the surrounding area
  • press the "T" key on the keyboard (or select the 3D mode on item from the context menu), after which the image will be converted to stereo 3D format

Following Google Maps, the application " Google Earth". For those who have NVIDIA 3D Vision-enabled hardware with the latest drivers, just run the program. You won't find 3D settings in the Google Earth menu, so you need to make sure your 3D Vision settings are correct.

If you're the lucky owner of an NVIDIA 3D Surround system, you can use three 3D monitors to view the map in the Google Earth app.

In addition, using the application "Google Earth" you can create 3D images of the world's most famous landmarks, as well as just the streets of your city. Those who do not have maps installed yet can download them.

Before you begin, make sure that all checkboxes are unchecked except for the "3D building" (as shown in the picture on the left). To achieve a more impressive effect, it is better to choose a picture with several plans.

Once you've settled on the terrain, go into full screen mode and level the image. You will be creating a stereo pair, so before selecting the first (right) picture, you need to take into account that the part of the image on the right in the left picture will be cut off.

After choosing the right location for this part of the future 3D image, copy the image (the option is available in the start menu) and save it as the right image. Then take a picture of the left side. As a general rule, the closer objects are to the camera, the less you need to shift the image.

The most important thing at this stage is to shift the image only in the horizontal direction, not allowing the camera to move up or down. However, this error can be corrected later, in contrast to zooming in or out of the camera. Sometimes it is enough just to press the Left key, which will allow you to shift the image clearly without unnecessary shifts. However, for close-up photos, you will need to use mouse control.

The next step is the layout of the stereo pair. You can download the free StereoPhoto Maker app from this link. Unfortunately, the program menu is available only in English, but it is not difficult to understand it. Select the item Open Left / Right Images. In the window, you will be prompted to select the left picture first, and then the right one. After confirmation, a stereo pair of the images you have selected will appear on the screen.

After that choose Adjust – Auto alignment. This is necessary in order to fix all the alignment problems. If the results of auto-correction do not suit you, you can change the parallax settings yourself by selecting Alignment (Left) from the Adjust menu or pressing the Left key. First, in the Stereo menu, you need to select the settings for outputting a 3D image (gray or color anaglyph, horizontal or vertical stereo pair).