A close-up view of Mars (photos)

A view of Mars as seen through Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope software.

Microsoft has made a number of improvements to its Worldwide Telescope project, including partnering with NASA to offer much better imagery of the planet Mars. The addition of Mars imagery is one of several changes to the telescope that Microsoft is showing off Monday at its annual Faculty Summit meeting with outside researchers.

View of Valles Marineris, using wide-angle imagery from NASA's Viking orbiters and the Mars Orbiter Camera.

Surface details of Mars showing the planet's Swiss cheese-like circular depressions.

Tracks of the Mars rover Opportunity are visible just north of the red planet's Victoria Crater.

This image shows the full sky view in the old version (left) and improved version (right).

A close-up of the old version of the Worldwide Telescope image clearly shows the seams between images.

Here, in the new version, seams between images are much less visible.