Tombstones in a surreal graveyard? No, the ghostly white spikes are New York skyscrapers surrounding an unearthly looking Central Park. What looks like a scene from a futuristic horror movie is Manhattan as seen by NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). The image is available at
 
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/srtm .
 
      The SRTM radar system, which flew onboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in February, gathered topographic elevation data over approximately 80 percent of Earth’s land mass. Although not designed to measure the heights of buildings, it was so sensitive that it easily detected the Manhattan skyscrapers but could not make out their individual shapes.
 
      The results of the mission will be the most extensive high- resolution database of Earth’s topography. More information about the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission is available at
 
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/ .
 
      JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.