3D renderings of Solar System bodies

3D renderings of Solar System bodies

Mercury
	(Outdated) Heavily cratered Mercury from a distance of 55000 km. These two Mercury images were rendered using a bumpmap created by Leonard Wikberg.	(Outdated) Here the distance is 30000 and the field of view 20°. Mercury is rather similar to the Moon in appearance, the main difference being the absence of "seas" (large, dark areas) on Mercury.
Venus
	Venus from a distance of 40000 km. The low contrast of Venus' cloud features is apparent, the well known Y-shaped cloud feature is barely discernible. The field of view is 30°.	Venus' southern hemisphere. Faint cloud markings are visible, including a tilted midlatitude band near the top.
	A crescent Venus. The cloud features visible in these renderings are much more obvious in ultraviolet light, in visible light the contrast is very low.	A closeup of Venus with some faint cloud features visible.
	Back in 1990 the Galileo spacecraft flew by Venus en route to Jupiter. This rendering shows the spacecraft at a distance of 48000 km from Venus shortly after closest approach.	And in 1999 the Cassini spacecraft flew by Venus en route to Saturn. This rendering shows it about 3500 km above the cloud tops shortly after closest approach. The field of view is 40°.
Mars
	Mars' crescent from a distance of 15000 km. The field of view is 35°. The huge Hellas impact basin is visible at lower left. It is frequentley filled with thin fog so its color is slightly different from the color of adjacent areas.	A portion of the huge Valles Marineris canyon system shortly after sunrise with morning fog visible on the canyon floor. The altitude above Mars' surface is 600 km and the field of view is 40°.
The Uranian system
	The narrow crescent of Uranus and the strange satellite Miranda.	Uranus and its faint rings. The rings are very narrow and dark (darker than coal !) so the fact that they actually can be seen here means that their brightness is exaggerated in this rendering.
	Uranus' rings with the sun almost directly behind. Because of dust in the rings they look fairly bright here, as if looking at the sun through a dusty windshield.	The sun is shining through the rings in this wide angle (75°) rendering. The rings are brightest near the sun because of scattering by small particles of dust. I don't know if this is realistic or not.
The Neptunian system
	The Voyager 2 spacecraft 200000 km from Neptune. In this "composite rendering", Neptune is rendered in my renderer and the spacecraft in POV-Ray using Constantine Thomas' model.	A rendering showing Neptune from a distance of 10 million km. The viewing and lighting geometry is identical to the one Voyager 2 had at this distance and also the field of view (0.424°).
	An equatorial view of Neptune from a distance of 180000 km. Because Voyager 2 did not image the high northern latitudes the cloud features in these areas shown here are fictional.	Several of Neptune's more prominent cloud features can be seen in this rendering, including the dark spot "D2" (lower left) and the bright "Scooter" (lower right). The distance from Neptune is 185000 km.