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Direct link to the money shot ~3MB JPG:

https://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/im...

It almost doesn't look real in just how detailed it is. I'm awestruck.

It is not real. It's 3d model.

It’s a mosaic, “To view the planet more widely, HRSC gathered 90 images at higher altitudes (of 4000 to 10 000 km), thus capturing areas of around 2500 km wide. These images were then put together to form a full global view.”

It’s written in the first paragraph of the link.

Why would you write it’s not real and a 3d model?

Look at the two circular images. They use height map to produce the consistent highlights using 3d model. The texture is real but the highlights are faked using 3d model based on height map.

I appreciate what you're saying, but images are nothing more than representations of something we measured with sensors and then combined into an array of data.

It's misleading to call this a photo. It's not easy to rigorously define what we mean by "photo", but I'd say it should involve measuring only photons in the human-visible spectrum.

However, I'm perfectly fine calling this an accurate image, because that's what it is.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com