For the past several years, Google has moved well beyond their core expertise—web search—into other areas of data management, including a desktop application that provides satellite images of places around the globe. Yesterday, TechCrunch and New Scientist were among those to review a new Google tool attempting to map the rest of the universe, by turning the cameras in the other direction.
Google’s instructional video explains how to navigate the heavens using a new mode for the Google Earth desktop application, Google Sky. Earth has already been downloaded over 250 million times, but only the latest versions will have this new feature. There is also another video featuring astronaut Sally Ride as she gets a guided tour of the star maps. The vast visual and descriptive information is one click away.
Google Sky provides a roadmap to constellations and planetary motion.
Sky allows amateur astronomers to zoom into distant galaxies, view constellation maps, and get annotated information about celestial bodies. You can also mark places in the universe you find interesting. The data feeding the system is provided by project partners NASA, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the Digital Sky Survey Consortium. That amounts to 100 million stars and 200 million galaxies, including 20,000 searchable by name. Sky has advantages over other virtual planetariums by being simpler to use, freely available, and has the ability to be annotated by the user.
This news comes on the heels of another welcome innovation by the company. Google Maps are now embeddable, taking a cue from YouTube videos. After navigating to your location, click on “Link to this page” to get a pop-up containing the URL and the code for embedding the map into a web page.
