Google Earth Adds Palomar DSS and Huble Images in new Sky View

Looks like Google has expanded Google Earth to show the sky.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070822/...oogle_sky_dc_1

LONDON (Reuters) - Popular mapping service Google Earth will launch a
new feature called Sky, a "virtual telescope" that the search engine
hopes will turn millions of Internet users into stargazers.
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Google, which created Google Earth to give Internet users an
astronaut's view that can zoom to street level, said the service would
be a playground for learning about space.

"Never before has a roadmap of the entire sky been made so readily
available," said Dr. Carol Christian of the Space Telescope Science
Institute, who co-led the institute's Sky team.

"Sky in Google Earth will foster and initiate new understanding of the
universe by bringing it to everyone's home computer."

Like Google Earth, Sky will enable users to float and zoom in on over
100 million individual stars and 200 million galaxies. Users will view
the sky as seen from earth.

It has created different layers which will show the life of a star,
constellations, high-resolution images provided by the Hubble Space
Telescope and a users guide to galaxies.

A backyard astronomy layer lets users click through stars, galaxies and
nebulae visible to the eye, binoculars and small telescopes.

The imagery was stitched together from numerous third parties including
the Digital Sky Survey Consortium, the United Kingdom Astronomy
Technology Centre and the Anglo-Australian Observatory. The imagery
will be updated over time.

"We're excited to provide users with rich astronomical imagery and
enhanced content that enables them to both learn about what they're
seeing and tell their own stories," said Google Product Manager Lior
Ron in a statement.

"By working with some of the industry's leading experts, we've been
able to transform Google Earth into a virtual telescope."

Google Earth launched in June 2005 to combine its search service with
satellite imagery, maps and 3D building to display geographical
information of the world. The search engine says over 250 million
people have downloaded it.

The Sky service will be available on all Google Earth domains, in 13
languages from later on Wednesday. Users will need to download the
newest version of Google Earth which can be found at
www.earth.google.com

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