Associated Press, NASA NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this snapshot of Mars 11 hours before the planet made its closest approach to Earth. Click photo for larger image.

Our next-door neighbor in the solar system has become quite the Internet star.

Web sites devoted to the findings of the Mars Exploration Rover mission are leaving no stone unturned -- or at least undocumented -- in meeting the public thirst for information about the Red Planet. A wide range of sites offer information, images and interactive features that take the Web surfer virtually there.

The mission has generated the most Web traffic of any NASA undertaking: The space agency's home page had 513 million hits in the first 48 hours after the Spirit rover landed last month, according to Computer World. Since then, rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been opening windows onto another world on countless computer screens. Last Saturday, Spirit made history by grinding a small hole into a Martian rock: Hours later, a picture of the tiny hole in the rock was online.

Those who don't have the bandwidth to download videos can always stop by Carnegie Science Center, where a video screen outside the Buhl Planetarium displays images from the expedition.

And now, a virtual tour:

Direct from NASA

NASA's official MER site (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html) is the best place to start for the latest updates on each mission's status. The multimedia section has images and video, with photos organized in chronological sequence and by category -- canyons, craters, volcanoes, etc. A section on the technology behind the mission describes the vehicles and instruments in use. There are educational sections geared to students and teachers, kids and news media.

Associated Press, NASA, JPL The landscape of Mars shows little variation in local topography, though a narrow peak only seven to eight kilometers away is visible on the horizon Click photo for larger image.

The NASA Planetary Photojournal site (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/ targetFamily/Mars) has a collection of photos from the MER expedition. There are thumbnails and images (such as the one below) at different resolutions. The site indicates which instrument was used to take each picture. There are also photos of other planets and of the sun.

The mission science team's site (http://athena.cornell.edu/) also offers solid information directly connected to the ongoing research. The Pancam link has some impressive 360-degree panoramic views of the Martian landscape, along with information on the Pancam itself, and about other instruments at work on the mission. There's a helpful timeline of Mars exploration dating back to 1992, and a wallpaper image that can be downloaded. An interactive section for kids lets them see how much they'd weigh on Mars.

All the news

For extensive links to news articles and other information resources, go to http://www.space.com/marsrover/. Visitors can see what the night sky looks like on Mars using Starrynight Pro simulation software. There's a counter ticking off the time -- down to the second -- that Spirit has been on the planet's surface.

	Associated Press, NASA One of the two rovers used in the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project is shown in this image released by NASA Click photo for larger image.

For a link to live Webcasts, go to http://spaceref.com/. This site also has news and photos from the MER expedition, plus a wealth of information about outer space in general.

Other detailed news sites are http://www.mars.tv/, with updated news, images and animations, and the Whole Mars Catalog (http://www.marstoday.com/), with news and e-mail updates.

Interactive Mars

At the Maestro Headquarters site (http://mars.telascience.org/home), one can download a scaled-down version of the software NASA is using to operate the rovers. Home users can then link to updates on the site to gather new sets of image data and build 3-D models. It's the first time NASA has released information of this kind to the general public.

Another you-are-there kind of experience is Digital Space Commons' Drive on Mars site (http://www.driveonmars.com/). Windows PC users can operate a vehicle in a simulated 3-D environment. It was designed to be a Web-learning experience. The site isn't sponsored or endorsed by NASA and makes no claims to re-create any actual mission findings.

For good interactive material, log on to http://www.marsquestonline.org/mer/. The site features Fly to Mars, in which the user can plot a course from Earth to Mars, and a section where one is asked to identify whether photos were taken on Mars or Earth -- illustrating the similarities between the two planets.

Mars 101

For a historical perspective, with information on other Mars missions including Pathfinder, Surveyor 2001 and Global Surveyor, check out http://mars.sgi.com/.

Good basic information about the planet, its moons and past missions can be found at http://stardate.org/resources/ssguide/mars.html.

Also, http://www.exploratorium.edu/ has live and archived Webcasts, plus wallpaper and postcards and other kid-friendly features.

Off the beaten path

The Mars Society is an organization that advocates exploration and colonization on the planet (http://www.marssociety.org/).

And for those who are nostalgic for a little sci-fi treatment of the subject, this link -- http://www.spaceref.com/directory/astronomy/planets/mars/fiction/ -- guides the reader to online versions of classic Mars fiction, including four Edgar Rice Burroughs novels, H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" and a study guide to Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles."