Google Earth has included moon, mars, and sky imagery for quite a while. You can find that imagery by simply selecting it from the drop-down menu within the Google Earth toolbar. To explore imagery of other planets and their moons you have to find it in a Google Earth file and open it. The SETI Institute offers nineteen Google Earth files that you can use to explore other imagery of other planets and their moons.

Recent enhancement to the Google Maps gallery has made it easier to access Google Earth files. You don’t have to have Google Earth installed in order to view the imagery published by the SETI Institute. You can view the SETI Institute’s Google Earth imagery by selecting a file in the Google Maps gallery. If you do have Google Earth installed on your computer you can download and open the files. The benefit of using Google Earth to open the files instead of just viewing them online is that you can combine your use of the SETI Institute’s files with other files that you own.

Applications for Education
For the most part the SETI Institute’s Google Earth files for planets and their moons are not the kind of files that you’ll use for general exploration. The files are best suited to advanced lessons on a space science in which you have a specific feature for students to look for or you have a specific analysis task for them to complete by using the imagery.

H/T to the Google Earth Blog.