It was asked for, so here it is…Mars!
http://www.iptic.com/html/mars.htm
Let me know what you think.
I know there’s not as much sunshine as there should be, but it’s 5:30am. I’m getting a snack and going to bed.
(Oh, if anyone wants to know. It’s one texture noise map, one norm bump map, and one color map. I made an atmosphere that was around 100km above surface, but the specularity wasn’t right most of the time, so it was left out in these renders.)
Sooo cool 
Stefano
WOW, i love that!!
I’m working on a solar system animation for a movie coming up. I’m only doing the 3d special fx and all in the movie, and the movie hasn’t been started yet- but I got the Mars textures from the same site as you.
One thing I can’t figure out, is a good way to simulate atmosphere.
Good job!
Jorx
Generally for an atmosphere, just scale the sphere up a bit. The make a material with the ‘ztransp’ on and a very low alpha. Then adjust your spec and ref to get the results you like. The alpha makes it thicker or thiner as needed.
For this mars I had an atmosphere, but it made it look to red. When mars from up close has a more dirt look. So I put the atmosphere in a different layer and just turn it on when needed.
Love the Mars.
Any chance I could get the Blend?
Where are you guys getting the wonderful textures from?
Thanks
Free Mars
nice textured sphere…
That’s the nice thing about CGI though, where else do you know that you can take a ball, and a picture, and make cool things. 
lol true acasto 
For atmosphere I place a single vertex in the center of the planet with a LARGE halo material. Alpha and hardness are then carefully tuned.
Results is better IMHO than a larger sphere with alpha because in my way almosphere nicely thinnes as heigth inreases, whereas with a larger transparent sphere this does not happen.
I’ve got a movie on my site with such an atmosphere
http://www.selleri.org/Blender/
go to the movie page and check the SECOND (the first is crap)
Stefano
This is a good method, however a combination of the two is best to have, one in each layer. Because blender lacks the direct capablities to tune the reflection and such based on angle of incoming light and camera angle, a shere with alpha can be used in those time when you need a smoother solid atmosphere.
This way you can just click to whichever as you need them.
The earth is tough and easy, tough because of complexity, and easy because it usually don’t look exactly alike in any two photos.