Zoom around the Galaxy - Microsoft Telescope brings space travel to a PC near you

By Jayant Mishra @ Friday, May 16, 2008 8:10 AM

Section - PCs/Software

Now computer users can travel through the galaxy on their own or take guided tours of different outer-space destinations developed by astronomers and academics. Worldwide Telescope knits together images from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and others. Also, providing the users an option to choose different telescopes and switch between different light wavelengths.

'The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe,' said Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman.

There are four main categories that can be explored - Sky, Earth, Planets and Panoramas.

The sky mode is WWT’s main feature. The user can view high quality outer space images from the Hubble Space Telescope and other ten Earth bound telescopes. One can also see the same images that scientists use for their research.

Earth mode enables the user to view the Earth using Google Earth, NASA World Wind etc.

By using the planet mode, one can virtually travel around three planets namely – Mars, Jupiter and the Moon.

Panoramas can be viewed and images can be downloaded using Panorama mode. X