# Cosmic Atlas surface assets

Moon, Mercury, Venus Atmosphere, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn maps © Solar System Scope / INOVE.

Source: https://www.solarsystemscope.com/textures/
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License and original download links verified on 2026-09-29. No endorsement by the creator is implied.

Original files (each obtained from the creator's download links):

- https://www.solarsystemscope.com/textures/download/2k_moon.jpg
- https://www.solarsystemscope.com/textures/download/2k_mercury.jpg
- https://www.solarsystemscope.com/textures/download/2k_venus_atmosphere.jpg
- https://www.solarsystemscope.com/textures/download/2k_mars.jpg
- https://www.solarsystemscope.com/textures/download/2k_jupiter.jpg
- https://www.solarsystemscope.com/textures/download/2k_saturn.jpg

Modifications: resized from the source images to 512×256 and 256×128, then compressed as WebP (quality 82). Runtime lighting and material tint are illustrative. On the standard tier, Moon/Mercury/Mars use a very subtle luminance-derived bump effect; it is not measured topography. `manifest.json` records source URLs, checksums, sizes and transformations. `frontend/scripts/prepare-atlas-textures.cjs` reproduces the local derivatives using the existing Sharp dependency.

The source describes NASA imagery/elevation inputs, tuned colours and fictional terrain filling unmapped gaps. These maps are not claimed to be exact contemporary observations. Venus depicts cloud cover, not the rocky surface.

The Sun's warm granulation and halo, Saturn's ring bands and fixed illustrative shadow wedge, translucent ascending/descending lunar-node glyphs, and gold directional Lagna marker are original procedural artwork authored for this project. They are not photographic assets or physical simulations. No paid or AI-generated media is used. No additional third-party media license applies to that procedural artwork.

Rahu/Ketu are reference symbols, not physical planets. Lagna is a directional reference, not a planet. Marker sizes, distances and surfaces are illustrative; the existing chart angle data is not altered. Texture failure falls back to explicitly procedural, generic markings. All texture requests are local to the site; no runtime texture CDN is used.

The simple tier (Save-Data, reported memory ≤4 GB or ≤4 logical cores) uses only 256×128 maps, no bump maps or Sun halo, fewer ring segments, and pixel ratio capped at 1. The standard tier uses 512×256 maps and the existing 1.5 pixel-ratio cap. Neither uses bloom, shadow maps, post-processing, orbit animation or surface spinning.