Nashua man's 'wet Mars' is a big online hit

I'm a big fan of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series - Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars (which I haven't read yet), so I enjoyed doing this Telegraph story today about a local computer geek who created a vert detail simulation of what a "wet Mars" might look like. I'm late to the story in a way, although other "big media" (ah, if only we were big) haven't done anything, because it's been featured on lots of online sites, mostly space- and tech-related.

This isn't sophisticated computer modeling based on planetary physics; he basically took the elevation data for the planet and added water, vegetation and clouds following certain rules but also his own aesthetic preferences. The result is gorgeous and weirdly unsettling.