I frequently post entries about mapping the other planets and moons in our solar system not just because I’m nuts about astronomy (though I am), but also because this is where maps of new places are coming from. Our own world has long since filled in the empty spaces; there’s nowhere left on the globe where “here be dragons” can be written. Out there, as I’ve said before, there are places that haven’t been mapped yet — and we’re mapping them now (Mercury, Titan) or will be shortly (Vesta, Ceres, Pluto).

In that vein, Steve Albers’s collection of planetary maps is worth keeping an eye on. Maintained for the Science on a Sphere project, the cylindrical-projection images collected here seem to be quite up to date: the MESSENGER imagery for Mercury, less than a year old, is already included, for example, and the map of Saturn’s moon Rhea was updated just over a week ago. At right, Jupiter’s moon Io.

Previously: Mapping the Solar System: Mercury and Titan.