Microsoft to Launch Worldwide Telescope This Month

Microsoft's Chairman Bill Gates said that the long-awaited Worldwide Telescope will be launched before the end of the month. The software uses the best images from the Hubble Space Telescope and approximately ten earth bound telescopes and allows users to view outer space. More precisely, it will also allow viewing Earth similar to NASA World Wind, Microsoft Virtual Earth and Google Earth, although it will not be powered by Virtual Earth and it will only share the image database with it.

"This is taking data that's very complex, gathered over many years from many telescopes, and making it accessible," said Gates, during a speech in Jakarta, Indonesia, according to PC World.

Microsoft dedicates the software to researcher Jim Gray, who went missing at sea last year. Gray has worked on the SkyServer project which served as a foundation for the Worldwide Telescope.

The program is similar to Google Sky and, to some extent, Celestia. Google Sky combines high resolution imagery and informative overlays in order to create a unique playground for visualizing and learning about space. The images used to recreate the sky are offered the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the Digital Sky Survey Consortium (DSSC), CalTech’s Palomar Observatory, the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC), and the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO).