Microsoft launches space tours on the Web

A view of space from Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft is ready to boldly take Web surfers where none has gone before.

The software giant on Monday launched its WorldWide Telescope, a free Web-based program that allows Web surfers to explore galaxies, star systems, and distant planets. The program, which was developed by Microsoft's research arm, weds images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and others.

"Users can see the X-ray view of the sky, zoom into bright radiation clouds, and then cross-fade into the visible light view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from a thousand years ago," Roy Gould, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement. "I believe this new creation from Microsoft will have a profound impact on the way we view the universe."

The program is similar to Google Sky, a mode of Google Earth that offers views of the universe, including high-resolution photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope and background information on discoveries and constellations.

Microsoft said WorldWide Telescope will be made available for free as a tribute to Jim Gray, a Microsoft researcher who disappeared off the California coast while sailing last year.

"The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe," Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, said in a statement. "Our hope is that it will inspire young people to explore astronomy and science, and help researchers in their quest to better understand the universe."

[dascha1]

No, no, no... I want to navigate with my own Personal Spacecraft guys. I want to be able to use my voice to command-set a course and get me there quickly/safely. Send back HD on-the-fly with surround sounds, climate data, the ability to touch things and learn what they are. Look for life and go to my owned personal island. Is that too much to ask?

[custompcmax]

This is pretty cool, though I am not sure what different it has over Google Sky. That may be why it is free. But, I am definately going to check it out. I loved playing MS Space Simulator when I was a kid. I used to see how far away I could get from earth... I never understood how they could generate space data that far away.

[inpersonoz]

What's different between this and Google Sky is Google Sky works on a Mac. Releasing a 'web based' app that is tied to a single OS shows that no matter how cool WWTelescope is, they just don't get the web.

[rapier1]

Not every application is suitable for web delivery.

[quikboy2]

@impersonoz : Well if you chose to use OS X, then you chose to be fine with it's incompatibility with the Windows and Linux world. You just have to accept that like every other Mac user. Or just install a copy of Windows, since you can run Boot Camp. Also, can Google Sky:

1. Allow you to connect your ASCOM telescope to the software?
2. Make virtual tours and share?
3. Give detailed data on things such magnitude, transit, and rich data layers?
4. Give the geospatial coordinates of where you are?
5. An easy to use interface and set-up?

I don't think so.

WWT is a really great tool for amateur and pro astronomers alike and the data and imagery already available is immense. It's absolutely wonderful.

[inpersonoz]

@quikboy: I'm not disputing that it looks to be a great product, and I agree, I do have other ways to use it. (I'm also quite content with whatever minor cross platform issues I occasionally have to deal with to use OSX.) But as a 'a free Web-based program that allows Web surfers to explore...' with education as a key target audience, choosing to making it platform specific misses the mark for millions of potential users. MS certainly have the resources & expertise to have delivered in a platform agnostic manner. To me anyway, it highlights the differences in approach to the web and web apps between MS & Google.

[rapier1]

@inpersonoz,

CNET is mistaken. This is not a web based application. Being that its a 21MB download that you actually install as an application I don't knwo how they could get it wrong but they did. I'm guessing they never actually used it.