Microsoft 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, marries together 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 1,000 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."
Talkback
The pictures are beautiful but, like Google Sky, the interface seems to have been designed by someone who has never looked at the sky except through a telescope. Without some idea of simple terrestrial concepts like East and West, there is no way to relate all the beautiful pictures to the sky I see off my balcony. For instance, is that Venus? I did set up the location parameter to be my city but I still could not tell what compass direction corresponded to the display and it was not possible to get a view of visible stars I could correlate with what I was actually seing.
There is also no way to show only stars above a certain magnitude which would make some kind of sense out of the sketch outlines of the constellations. I could see a bright line which was apparently the Milky Way but the object finder would only point out invisible stars while neglecting the biggest object in our vicinity.
Without a real-world sky and a translation of Right Ascension, etc. into common terrestrial coordinates (I know it is complicated but it is ONLY math, which is why we have computers), you might as well just list the pictures and provide text search. Pretending that you are zooming around the universe doesn't work when you can't even see the stars
You can get glimpses of the interface in action in Charles McLellan and Rupert Goodwins' video look at the Microsoft software: <a href="http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39418102,00.htm">http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39418102,00.htm</a>
You have provided promotional material showing the existing interface. It is simply not possible to get compass direction information or a "real sky" view out of WorldWide Telescope. I have tried. A reviewr at Discovery Channel has tried and failed. It is not possible and severely limits its usefulness especially to teachers trying to relate astronomy studies to the real world.
You're correct: My post was intended to be a comment on the story rather than a reply to your objection about the scope of the software. I misclicked.
Fair do.
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