March 24, 2009 3:32 PM PDT

Microsoft, NASA put universe back on the Web

If you think the new Google Earth update that shows even more about Mars' surface is cool, Microsoft thinks what's it's about to offer is even cooler.

The company, together with NASA, announced on Tuesday plans to make planetary images and data available via the Internet. The two organizations will jointly develop the technology and infrastructure necessary to make NASA content--including high-resolution scientific images and data from Mars and the moon--explorable on Microsoft's online virtual telescope for exploring the universe, called WorldWide Telescope.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

The WorldWide Telescope is a Web 2.0 visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from ground- and space-based telescopes for a seamless, rich media-guided exploration of the universe. Through WorldWide Telescope and Microsoft technology, people will be able to pan and zoom in on these images and the most interesting locations on Mars and the moon without distorted views at the poles.

For this new project, NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will process and host more than 100 terabytes of data (that's about enough to fill 20,000 DVDs). WorldWide Telescope will incorporate the data later in 2009 and feature imagery from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which was launched in August 2005.

The MRO has been examining Mars with a high-resolution camera and five other instruments since 2006. So far the orbiter has sent home more data than all other Mars missions combined.

Other than the MRO, images a camera aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the LRO, will also be incorporated when publicly released this fall. The LRO is scheduled to launch this May and will spend at least a year in a low, polar orbit approximately 30 miles above the lunar surface collecting detailed information about the lunar environment.

Microsoft and NASA have worked together before, including on the project that enabled NASA to develop 3D interactive Microsoft Photosynth collections of the space shuttle launch pad and other facilities at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and network storage, and writes about anything else he finds interesting. You can also listen to his podcast at insidecnetlabs.cnet.com. E-mail Dong.

Topics:: Digital photography,; Games and entertainment

Tags:: NASA,; Microsoft,; universe,; WorldWide Telescope

Share:: Digg; Del.icio.us; Reddit; Facebook; Twitter

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right

Deep Tech
Consensus emerges for key Web app standard
Indexed DB isn't a sure thing, but it's got most of the right allies in the browser world to become an enabler of the cloud-computing vision.
Gallery
Day one at SXSWi (photos)
Circuit Breaker
Apple COO gets $5 million thank you
Tim Cook will get $5 million plus some extra stock options as a reward for filling in for Steve Jobs last year.
Beyond Binary
IE 9, Windows Phone in the Mix
At the annual Las Vegas event, Microsoft plans to show its latest browser and give developers the tools they need to write software for the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 series devices.
Video
Sony announces PlayStation Move
Digital Media
Tech finds its place at SXSWi (roundup)
As the Web generation descends on the South by Southwest Interactive show in Austin, several location-based start-ups try to put themselves on the map.
Video
Pressing reboot on Windows Phone
The Social
SXSWi: Emergency alarm evacuates convention center
Was it a glitch or a mischievous prankster who pulled the fire alarm during the South by Southwest Interactive Festival? Or maybe a sign that it's happy hour?
Health Tech
Computer algorithm, MRI used to tap memory
Brain scans identify which short film clip volunteers were remembering, which could help researchers better understand memory recording patterns and, ultimately, dementia.
Gallery
Chasing efficiency in green homes (photos)
Crave
Magneat review: The end of tangled headphones?
Magneat securely holds your headphones even when they're not in your ears. But that's not to say it doesn't create its own problems.
Nanotech - The Circuits Blog
'Runaway' Prius: Questions raised about driver
The case of a "runaway" Prius in San Diego demonstrates how claims about electronic flaws requires investigators to look carefully at the human element too.