Microsoft launched free software for space tours

The WorldWide Telescope software makes available to users information in the volume of 12 terabytes - equivalent to 2.6 billion pages of text - which includes images from a variety of sources

Fans of "Star Trek" know that traveling in space is not an easy task, but Microsoft wants to offer computer users space tours as easy as possible: the software giant introduced a new application called WorldWide Telescope, which allows everyone interested in space - from hobbyists to astronomy professors - to tour between galaxies, distant stars and worlds. The WorldWide Telescope software makes available to users information in the volume of 12 terabytes - equivalent to 2.6 billion pages of text - which includes images from a variety of sources, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

The experience of using the software is reminiscent of a video game in which users can focus (Zoom In) on stars that are light years away from Earth and move away from them (Zoom Out). The software offers easy viewing of distant worlds and presents rare sights in a clear and breathtaking way. Users can also make their own space tours and share them with other users. A test version of the software is offered for download at the following address.

As you know, Google, Microsoft's biggest competitor, also has its eyes on the sky. Not long ago, Google began to offer the Google Sky application - an extension of Google Earth - also in the regular web browser, and not only in the form of a separate software. Google's application is also offered, of course, for free.

Microsoft said that the WorldWide Telescope software is offered for free as a tribute to the memory of Jim Gray, a researcher of the company who has been missing since his ship was lost off the coast of California, last year. Gray collaborated with astronomers in organizing huge amounts of data and images received from satellites.

Microsoft hopes that the technology used in the WorldWide Telescope software will be able to be used by the company in future software applications, but the purpose of the software, according to the company, is to cultivate children's interest in space and perhaps even inspire in them a desire to engage in science and engineering in the future.

"For me, the WorldWide Telescope software will succeed if it changes the way people perceive the universe, and if a new generation of children gets to know space - as opposed to today's kids who don't know it at all," said Curtis Wong, director of the Next Media Research unit at Microsoft. "Nowadays, astronomy is disconnected from all context. "Everyone sees the spectacular images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, but they have no idea how big the objects in them are, or how far away they are," Wong added.