You’ve probably used it to find your childhood home or check if your neighbor finally mowed their lawn. But honestly, most people have no clue that Google Earth isn’t just for stalk—uh, surveying—suburban driveways. It’s actually a full-blown spaceship. If you know where to click, you can ditch the satellite view of New York City and teleport straight to the rusted, dusty plains of the Red Planet.
Google Earth and Mars have a relationship that goes back way further than most of the apps on your phone right now. It started back in 2009. Google teamed up with NASA researchers at Ames Research Center to basically take the "Street View" tech we use for taco runs and apply it to a planet 140 million miles away.
It’s weird.
We live in an age where billionaires are racing to get there, yet we have this incredibly powerful, free tool sitting in our "Applications" folder that lets us scout landing sites before Elon Musk even gets his rockets off the pad. If you haven't toggled that little planet icon in the top toolbar of the Google Earth Pro desktop app lately, you're missing out on a literal world of high-res terrain data that used to be reserved for people with PhDs.
How Google Earth and Mars Actually Work Together
A lot of people think the Mars feature is just a flat photo wrapped around a sphere. It’s not.
When you switch to Mars mode, the entire interface recalibrates. You're looking at a composite of data from several different orbiters. The big ones are the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the 2001 Mars Odyssey. Specifically, Google uses the Context Camera (CTX) and the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE).
HiRISE is the heavy hitter here. It’s a camera so powerful it can spot a rock the size of a coffee table from space. When you're zooming into Gale Crater or the slopes of Olympus Mons, you’re often seeing textures that are actually more detailed than some of the rural imagery Google has for parts of Earth.
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The coolest part?
The "Live from Mars" layer. It’s a bit of a misnomer because "live" in space terms means "as fast as we can beam it back," but it shows you images taken by the THEMIS camera on the Odyssey orbiter just hours or days ago. You can literally see the tracks left by the Curiosity or Perseverance rovers if you know where to look. It makes the planet feel less like a dry science project and more like a place where things are actually happening right now.
The Layers Most People Miss
Don't just stare at the red dust. The sidebar is where the real gold is buried.
There’s a "Guided Tours" section that’s narrated by people who actually know what they’re talking about, like Ira Flatow from Science Friday or Bill Nye. They walk you through the history of the Martian landscape. You can explore the "Face on Mars" myth (which, spoiler alert, is just a pile of rocks that looks different when the sun hits it right) or dive into the Valles Marineris.
Valles Marineris is the granddaddy of all canyons. If you put it on Earth, it would stretch from New York to Los Angeles. In Google Earth, you can tilt the view and "fly" through the canyon walls. It’s dizzying. It’s better than any flight simulator because the elevations are based on actual laser altimetry from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). This isn't an artist's rendition; it’s a 3D model of reality.
The Problem with the Web Version
Here is a bit of a reality check: Google is kinda moving away from the "Pro" desktop version, which sucks.
The web-based version of Google Earth that runs in your browser is slick and fast, but it’s missing a lot of the deep-dive planetary stuff that made the original so legendary. If you want the full Google Earth and Mars experience—the one where you can see the infrared maps and the historical global maps from the 19th century—you have to download the desktop Pro version. It’s still free. Google just doesn’t advertise it much anymore.
Why does that matter?
Because the web version is more of a "look but don't touch" experience. The Pro version lets you import your own data. Scientists actually use it to map out potential water ice deposits. If you’re a hobbyist or just a space nerd, the desktop version is the only way to see the "Spacecraft" layer, which shows you 3D models of the landers exactly where they touched down. You can stand next to Spirit or Opportunity. You can see the Viking landers from the 70s. It puts the scale of human exploration into a perspective that a flat Wikipedia image just can't touch.
Misconceptions About What You're Seeing
People often complain that the colors look "off." They’re right.
Mars isn't always that bright, pumpkin-spice orange. A lot of the imagery in Google Earth and Mars is "false color" or "stretched." Scientists do this to highlight different mineral compositions. If you see a patch of bright blue or purple in a crater, it’s not because there’s a lake of Gatorade there. It usually means there’s a high concentration of hematite or olivine.
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Also, the "clouds" you see in some layers aren't real-time weather. Mars has a thin atmosphere, but it does have dust storms and ice clouds. However, the global mosaic is stitched together to be as clear as possible. If there was a global dust storm when the satellite flew over, you wouldn't see the ground at all. So, Google uses the "best" images, not necessarily the "newest" ones for the base map.
Why We Still Need This Tool in 2026
We're getting closer to the Artemis missions and eventually Mars. Seeing these locations through a screen is the closest 99.9% of us will ever get.
But it’s also about democratizing science. You don't need to be at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) to see the delta in Jezero Crater where Perseverance is currently drilling for signs of ancient life. You can pull it up while you're eating a sandwich. That accessibility is what changed the game. Before Google Earth and Mars, this data was locked away in FTP servers and specialized software that required a literal degree to operate. Now, it’s a UI that a five-year-old can navigate.
It also serves as a reality check for the "Mars is a backup Earth" crowd. When you spend an hour flying over the Deseado Crater or the Argyre Planitia, you realize how hostile it is. It’s beautiful, sure. But it’s a frozen, irradiated desert. The level of detail Google provides actually makes the planet feel more real—and therefore more dangerous—than any sci-fi movie.
Getting the Most Out of Your "Mars Flight"
If you want to actually do something cool with this instead of just scrolling around aimlessly, try these steps:
- Find the "Explore" Icon: On the desktop Pro version, it looks like a little Saturn-ringed planet. Click it and select "Mars."
- Turn on the 3D Buildings Layer: Even though there are no buildings, this layer controls the 3D terrain. If it's off, the planet stays flat. Turn it on to see the height of the volcanoes.
- Visit Olympus Mons: It’s the tallest volcano in the solar system. It’s three times the height of Everest. In Google Earth, tilt your view to the horizon and try to see the top. You can't really; it’s so big it literally curves with the planet.
- Check the "Mars Gallery": This is where NASA hides the "Landmarks" and the "Stories from Scientists." It’s basically an interactive museum.
- Search for "Curiosity": Use the search bar just like you’re looking for a Starbucks. It will take you to Gale Crater and show you the rover’s actual path.
The Future of Planetary Browsing
Google isn't the only player anymore. NASA has "Mars Trek," which is a web-based browser that is arguably more powerful for actual data analysis. It has tools to calculate the slope of a hill or the volume of a crater.
However, Google Earth remains the king of usability. It’s the bridge between "I’m bored at work" and "I’m learning about planetary geomorphology."
We’re likely going to see an update soon that integrates more of the Perseverance rover’s high-def panoramas. Right now, there’s a bit of a lag between the newest rover data and the Google Earth interface. But as the "Mars Sample Return" missions start picking up steam, the demand for high-res scouting is only going to grow.
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Actionable Next Steps for the Aspiring Explorer
- Download Google Earth Pro: Seriously, don't use the web version for Mars. The desktop app is where the "Layers" panel lives, and that’s the heart of the experience.
- Coordinate Hunting: Look up the coordinates for the "Cydonia" region. It’s where the "Face on Mars" is. Compare the 1976 Viking imagery with the modern HiRISE imagery in the app to see how much better our cameras have gotten.
- Identify Landers: See if you can find the landing site of the InSight lander in the Elysium Planitia. It’s a flat, boring-looking plain, but understanding why NASA chose a boring place (for safety and seismic stability) is a lesson in engineering.
- Cross-Reference with NASA's Photojournal: When you find a cool crater in Google Earth, take the name and search it on the NASA JPL Photojournal. You’ll often find the raw, uncompressed files and the scientific papers explaining what you’re looking at.
The Red Planet isn't just a dot in the sky or a movie setting anymore. It’s a mapped, gridded, and searchable territory. Google Earth and Mars turned the most ambitious frontier in human history into something you can explore with a mouse wheel. Go use it.