High-resolution Russian spy satellite images of the super-secret U.S. test flight center at Groom Lake, Nev. -- known as Area 51 -- are available to the public for the first time.

A U.S. company, Terraserver.com, took the photos using a Russian spy satellite in 1998, and is posting images of thousands of acres of Area 51 on its commercial Web site. The panchromatic, or black-and-white, images have a 2-meter resolution and show details of various buildings, complexes and landing strips. Industry analysts expect a higher resolution image with color to be introduced within weeks or days. The image further introduces an era of transparency, in which nations will find it more difficult to hide their secrets. High resolution satellite imagery, which is now available commercially from companies like Terraserver.com and SpaceImaging.com, will inform the world about disasters and give access to "denied" areas. The Russian military has been seeing these images for years, and now for the first time are available to the U.S. public.