back to article Google adds planets and moons to Maps, but puts bits in the wrong places

Can't tell the difference between a photo of your partner and one of your pet? Good news, Google can now automatically sort photos of animals from pics of people. In this pun-peppered post (“oppawtunity”? “pawesome movie”? Save us) explains that instead of asking Google Photos for “dog” or “cat”, the software will now do the …

  1. I am David Jones

    So what *is* the right way up for a moon or planet?

    1. Mark 110

      And if you're in zero gravity don't up and down become just a little arbitrary.

      1. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

        Cannot be a mirror image problem.

        Mirrors require gravity to work. They swap left and right, but not up and down. Without gravity, how would they know which was which?

        1. bombastic bob Silver badge
          Devil

          Re: Cannot be a mirror image problem.

          actually gravity isn't involved - it's just our perception of the image being "flipped"

          if both right/left and up/down were flipped, it would be "rotated 180 degrees". isn't it like that inside of our eyeballs?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        True, arbitrary, however its usually better if all the bits are at least the same way up/round regardless... You wouldn't want a picture of you with one foot reversed would you?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Astronomic telescopes traditionally have inverted images as you don't want to lose light/quality from having an extra lens just to flip the image to be "the right way round".

      1. frank ly

        Also, for an astronomic telescope, an extra lens would be a massive weight and enourmous extra cost.

      2. Cuddles

        "Astronomic telescopes traditionally have inverted images as you don't want to lose light/quality from having an extra lens just to flip the image to be "the right way round"."

        This is why many telescopes are in the southern hemisphere - since everything is already upside-down the images come out the right way up.

      3. hmv

        Actually any optical device has inverted images.

        How common a lens to invert the image again is I don't know, but you certainly don't see them with cameras - film is flipped to the preferred orientation manually, and digital does it automatically but it isn't done optically.

        1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

          "Actually any optical device has inverted images."

          Including everone's MK I eyeball.

    3. Daniel Bower

      It depends

      If you want to view the edge or the face of a planet ;)

    4. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

        North is up

        ...but which North? Local North? Magnetic North? Solar North? North relative to the plane of the ecliptic? Galactic North?

        Personally, I'd probably define it as parallel to the axis of rotation of the body, in whichever direction happens to be pointing in roughly the same direction as ecliptic north, but I don't know how well that will work for bodies that are noticeably titled relative to the ecliptic.

    5. bombastic bob Silver badge

      normally it would be north up, where "north" is defined by the ecliptic plane and what 'north' would be on earth in relation to it. or something like that, with the planets all revolving in roughly the same direction around the sun, and rotating in roughly the same manner [with notable exceptions]. Assuming they all "follow the standard" north would be up, and planetary rotation would be west to east, in whatever photo they show, even for exoplanets [ok no photos of THOSE yet but still...]

  2. Mark 85
    Facepalm

    See icon...

  3. Blank-Reg
    Trollface

    So, when are we getting streetview?

    1. Hans 1
      Thumb Up

      Man, you should have used amanfrommars' icon for that one ;-)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The detail on Mimas is good, but not quite good enough to see the Greggs half a mile from Pangea Chasma.

    3. Andy The Hat Silver badge

      Not on Mars

      ... it'll be Canal View ...

  4. Tigra 07
    Trollface

    Bugger

    Shit. This is gonna be terrible. People will be getting stranded on the wrong planets, miles from their destinations.

    You book a holiday in Spain, set off to drive across Europe with your Satnav, and before you know it - BOOM. You're lost, miles from Earth and stranded on Barcelona, Jupiter, miles from your hotel.

    Google, sort your shit out. People's lives are at stake!

    1. fajensen
      Pint

      Re: Bugger

      Wait a moment here - It accurate enough for launching someone, like maybe Zuckerberg or Larry Ellison on a Mars Mission.

      1. James O'Shea

        Re: Bugger

        You don't want to send Zuck or Leisure Suit Larry to Mars, the locals might take that kind of thing as an act of war, and rightly so. I've seen movies indicating that riling up the locals might not be a very good idea.

        Send 'em off to one of the planets of Betelgeuse, assuming there are any. Better yet, send them to go find out if there are any planets in that system. It'll take a long time for them to get there, and even more time for the locals to send a response. (Betelgeuse is a red supergiant, so there probably aren't any _surviving_ planets; this makes it an excellent choice to send those two off to. Besides, it's expected to go supernova Real Soon Now as astronomers measure time, making it an even better choice to send 'em to. I think I'll start a Kickstarter to fund this worthy mission.)

        <exits, singing Queen's '39.>

        1. defiler

          Re: Bugger

          Thumbs up for '39 - it's been a long time since I heard that.

      2. Muscleguy

        Re: Bugger

        I can see it now, the BFR arrives at its destination but there is no planet there. What has happened? They noted where the planet was when they planned the mission and then aimed for there.

    2. DJV Silver badge

      Re: Bugger

      So, looks like the person who made all the cockups on Apple maps a few years ago got a job at Google...

    3. apolodoro

      Re: Bugger

      They should have been able to figure out that they made a wrong turn when the wind really picked up and the car started to smell like ammonia.

  5. Sureo

    Pittsburgh?

    When I type 'moon' in Google Maps I get a map of Pittsburgh.

    1. James O'Shea

      Re: Pittsburgh?

      must resist deploying the 'arse end of Pennsylvania' joke, I really must...

  6. Crisp

    Google can now automatically sort photos of animals from pics of people

    But can it sort my pron collection?

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: Google can now automatically sort photos of animals from pics of people

      "But can it sort my pron collection?"

      Depends. How many pics of animals are we talking?

    2. Robert Moore
      Coat

      Re: Google can now automatically sort photos of animals from pics of people

      But can it sort my pron collection?

      I'm sorry, Google, AWS and Azure combined, do not have sufficient processing power to complete this task before the heat death of the universe.

  7. J.G.Harston Silver badge

    Ganymede, Mimas, Enceladus, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus, Europa, and Titan.

    Isn't that something Dave Lister used to sing?

    1. Glenturret Single Malt

      Re: Ganymede, Mimas, Enceladus, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus, Europa, and Titan.

      Tom Lehrer, surely as in the elements song.

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