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August 22, 2007

Google Earth Heads For The Stars

Duncan Riley

51 comments »

googleearth.jpgGoogle has launched Sky for Google Earth, new functionality that adds imagery of the stars to Google Earth’s already extensive imagery of our planet.

According to Google, the new functionality allows users to “explore the universe from the comfort of your chair.” Users can zoom in on galaxies hundreds of millions of light years away, explore the constellations and even witness a supernova explosion.

The space imagery includes over one million photographs from various sources, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Palomar Observatory at the California Institute of Technology and the Hubble Telescope.

It’s often said that Google Earth and Google Maps took Cartography to the masses, Sky could well do the same for Astronomy.

To access Sky, users must download the latest version of Google Earth.

stars1.jpgstars2.jpg

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 2:14 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. WEB

    August 22nd, 2007 at 2:22 am

    Just try to imagine what the experience will be like a decade from now as the technology grows and science evolves.

  2. Prateek

    August 22nd, 2007 at 3:00 am

    I had a software like that calles “HPlanet” it used to show satellites too.

  3. Anujk

    August 22nd, 2007 at 3:02 am

    can’t wait to download the new version of Google earth… mam this is going crazy… first the earth and now sky… what’s next?

  4. EH

    August 22nd, 2007 at 3:04 am

    Can’t wait for the bazillion Google Earth Community OMGALIEN? bookmarks to fill up the Big Dipper.

  5. Anand

    August 22nd, 2007 at 3:04 am

    Any idea why Google is doing all this? Is this a money-making venture?

  6. Johnti

    August 22nd, 2007 at 3:18 am

    I think Google’s strategy is to get us geeks spending so much time playing with this we dont get any work done, therefore leaving G free to dominate.

    Seriously though its a class product, well done Google

  7. Johnti

    August 22nd, 2007 at 3:21 am

    s**t im lost. Does any one know the way back to Earth from Ursa Major ??

  8. Rajesh Shakya

    August 22nd, 2007 at 3:54 am

    Wow, this will be a great experience. This is another step of Google heading towards creating a Galaxy Suite.

    Rajesh Shakya
    http://www.rajeshshakya.com
    Helping technopreneurs to excel and lead their life!

  9. Amit

    August 22nd, 2007 at 4:11 am

    I wonder what type of “location based” ads they are going to post up there… ;-)

  10. OknooRap

    August 22nd, 2007 at 4:32 am

    Google = Making-Money Again :D

  11. jaike

    August 22nd, 2007 at 4:57 am

    now we just need a direct feed to the hubble and we can search live!

  12. FedUp

    August 22nd, 2007 at 5:08 am

    I used to fly-in to read the comments-section whenever TC ‘broke’ a news. Not anymore these days. It is either full of spam or irrelevant half-baked thoughts.
    Micheal, please have someone moderate the comments.

  13. Duncan Riley

    August 22nd, 2007 at 5:20 am

    Feedup
    the comment you referred to has been deleted (ie the spam). Unfortunately there isn’t someone deleting them 24/7, and we mostly get them all.

  14. commenter

    August 22nd, 2007 at 5:29 am

    Great: explore the stars from your armchair.

    I told my kids about the upcoming eclipse. I was happy to see their enthusiasm, until they asked me what channel it would be on!

  15. man from Nantucket

    August 22nd, 2007 at 6:19 am

    Wait- it doesn’t support Directions??

  16. Howto Monster

    August 22nd, 2007 at 6:33 am

    Oh my, I think I see movement on Pluto.
    Is that you?

  17. Skeptic

    August 22nd, 2007 at 7:41 am

    Has anyone else noticed that some of the constellations are wrong? Ursa Major is just plain bad…

  18. Richard Miller

    August 22nd, 2007 at 7:53 am

    Are they gonna create a Google universe version or what?

  19. Amy Wilsch

    August 22nd, 2007 at 8:04 am

    @”WEB” - totally. I’m actually really excited for the future of technology. I don’t think we can even imagine what all will be available in 10-20 years. Will make our ‘internets’ look primeval. Some neighbor kids were using Google Space in school the other day. I remember in school going to the planetarium was the coolest thing ever… although I’m still waiting for my rocket powered backpack so I can fly over traffic.

  20. K. Lysenko

    August 22nd, 2007 at 8:24 am

    I am a director of SKY-MAP.ORG. Go to http://www.sky-map.org and you will see that what Google has just announced already exists in web-based version for about a year. We have SDSS, IRAS, and H-Alpha surveys integrated in our system and we have 100s of millions of objects mapped. Only for HDF we have > 10.000 galaxies mapped. We also have articles related to hundreds of thousands of objects and many features that Google doesn’t have. We would be happy to find a way to cooperate with Google.
    Here are some links:
    Hubble Ultra Deep Field: http://www.sky-map.org/?img_so.....object=udf
    Horsehead Nebula: http://www.sky-map.org/?object=Horsehead Nebula&zoom=9&img_source=IMG_all&img_borders=1
    M45, The Pleiades: http://www.sky-map.org/?img_so....._borders=1
    Thanks,
    K. Lysenko,
    SKY-MAP.ORG,
    kostya@sky-map.info,
    416-8369785.

  21. Yezidi

    August 22nd, 2007 at 9:01 am

    Google merges with the Universe!

    Johnti - call OnStar.

  22. Goorsha

    August 22nd, 2007 at 10:25 am

    Another reason to continue to love Google!

    However, I am a bit disappointed that Google has gone to the skies BEFORE getting us high resolution images of all parts of the earth, including Africa, Asia and Latin America.

    Any reader from Google? Please bring this to the attention of the concerned department so that Google Earth is completed at same resolution as, say, NYC, SF, LA or London, no matter cities / countries are rich or poor. After all, Google Earth is an information site, no matter where.

    Thanks

  23. Velioncho

    August 22nd, 2007 at 10:31 am

    Amazing. Though I dont like google that much these days, google earth always amazed me.

    It is a wow prodcut. Now sky. How many of us thought they will really do sky imagery when we saw Google Earth first time. Not me.

    This I call creativity. Not the typical TC front page stories - add a red leaf to a tree and hype up how the redness will change the tree and thus help humans.

  24. Chris G

    August 22nd, 2007 at 11:12 am

    Commenter, it sounds like… no it’s a fact, that your kids need to get out and do something instead of sitting in front of a television. That is unless you want your kids to have an IQ of a rock when they graduate high school?

  25. RKGL

    August 22nd, 2007 at 11:30 am

    And there is Stellarium, the open source alternative that is widely used in planetarium across the world…

  26. Dan

    August 22nd, 2007 at 11:36 am

    um, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestia

  27. Someones-Ex-Gf.com

    August 22nd, 2007 at 12:20 pm

    Another reason to love Google!

  28. Scott B

    August 22nd, 2007 at 1:12 pm

    Stellarium is a great app. And while I like Google, I doubt Sky will ever achieve the same level.

  29. Peter

    August 22nd, 2007 at 2:36 pm

    While it’s no replacement for serious astronomy apps, its nonetheless a great addition to Google Earth and inline with Google’s trend of providing people with more data/information at their fingertips.

    At the very least, it’ll provide a great introduction and incentive for those looking to get more into astronomy.

  30. Drawany

    August 22nd, 2007 at 3:27 pm

    This is indeed very interesting. But I agree with Goorsha, Google should bring us high resolution images of places apart from Europe & America.
    I wonder how useful Google Sky would be to the average joe apart from having some novelty value.

  31. cedmie

    August 22nd, 2007 at 4:09 pm

    http://nemdil.com/tvframes/ara.....bic-tv.htm

  32. Matt R

    August 22nd, 2007 at 7:27 pm

    “what companies do when they have money to burn”

  33. Thor

    August 23rd, 2007 at 4:34 pm

    HOW? I’m a subscription paying member of google earth and not happy about not getting an email. How do I get google space, space.google.com does not work, galaxy.google.com neither. How?

    Good luck on getting bought youtube style, sky-map.org

  34. Thor

    August 23rd, 2007 at 4:37 pm

    I stumbled accross google space first and it sounded promising:

    ” … where we give travellers a bit of useful space and time before their flight”

    http://www.google.co.uk/googlespace/

  35. amir

    August 24th, 2007 at 3:48 am

    yes

  36. Divyashree

    August 25th, 2007 at 11:55 pm

    Its an amazing approach…I had always waited for this to happen coz I love universe and always wished to explore it..!Thank You very much…Quite anxious and exited already.

  37. bfhdh

    August 26th, 2007 at 10:48 am

    tyfzgsautuagtr huyuazgu

  38. ashvin

    September 3rd, 2007 at 4:16 am

    wow its very nice but i could not understand the functions of it can anyone help me or mail me because i love universe but i dont know the uses of it.please mail it to me……..my mail id id ashvinlohiya@gmail.com

  39. poo poo

    September 4th, 2007 at 2:56 am

    poo

  40. poo poo

    September 4th, 2007 at 2:56 am

    poo poo poo poo wee wee wee wee

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