Well, it may not be the actual Mars, but its pretty close and its only a click away on Google Maps. Google Street View recently added images of Devon Island, a giant uninhabited island on Earth, to its picture collection. This island, which has been deemed "unlivable" and is located in the Canadian Arctic, was nicknamed "Mars on Earth," because its weather and terrain are the closest environments to Mars on our planet. Google has also created a website for Devon Island, noting that the "polar-desert climate and barren, rocky terrain" are perfect for researchers who come here every summer in an effort to prepare for future explorations to the Red Planet.
The tech giant worked with researchers who are part of the Haughton Mars Project or also known as HMP. According to the project's website, it studies different types of strategies, technologies, and training methods for future Mars missions. Of particular interest is the 23-million-year-old Haughton crater, which "resembles the Mars surface in more ways than any other place on Earth," HMP's website adds. HMP also focuses on deep space, the moon, and near-Earth objects, which they say are, "key stepping-stones in the exploration of Mars."
Once occupied by a giant lake, Haughton crater has a 20-kilometer-wide impact structure. The asteroid that caused the crater was so powerful that researchers estimate it took approximately 10 seconds to be excavated to its original depth of 1.6 kilometers, likely "[wiping] out all life on the surface of the Earth for hundreds of kilometers around." Due to Devon Island's mostly cold and dry climate, the crater hasn't suffered from much erosion damage. According to Google Earth's Devon Island website, the crater is known as one of the best-preserved impact structures on our planet.
"The Haughton impact transferred so much heat into the ground that hydrothermal systems, including hot springs, triggered by the impact remained active for decades," Google Earth said on its website. In addition to the images added to Google Street View, the company has uploaded a video to YouTube to give viewers a better idea of what the topography and terrain are like.
Again, it isn't actually Mars that you'll be seeing on Google, but it's as comparable as we can get for now or at least until Google puts a rover on Mars solely to take pictures.
