Google Earth's Sky

August 22, 2007 | Matt Marshall

Google releases a new product within Google Earth today called Sky that will allow users to view the skies, along with stars, as seen from Earth.

There’s a demo here.

The New York Times has a review here.

Sky will let users fly around and zoom in, exposing increasingly detailed imagery of some 100 million stars and 200 million galaxies…Sky already has layers showing various constellations, a user’s guide to galaxies, the position of planets two months into the future and animations of lunar positions.

Microsoft has a research project that offers something similar, called World Wide Telescope (more here). Jim Gray, the Microsoft researcher who once led the project, disappeared earlier this year after a sailing trip off San Francisco Bay.

Next Story: Reuters acquires StarMine, securities rating company
Previous Story: YouTube to introduce semi-transparent ads

Twitter

Facebook

Google Buzz

Digg

StumbleUpon

Delicious

Google

More...

Tags: Google earth sky

About the Author, Matt Marshall

Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.