Google Mars updated!

The folks who brought you the amazing Google Earth and Google Sky have also created Google Mars, a virtual map of the Red Planet. All three are packed into one place, for easy download. If you've never used this, download it now! It's an extremely cool and fun way to explore the Earth, the sky, and now Mars. You can roam the surface, zoom in and out, take closer hi-res looks at some features, and just generally lose hours of your life to this... but in a good way. Today Google announced three new updates for Mars, and they're pretty nifty. One is an overlay that shows old historical maps, like the ones Percival Lowell made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when he fancied Mars was crisscrossed with canals dug by a dying race. You can take that trip to Victorian Mars, all without having to oustretch ...