Microsoft is jealous of Google to develop virtual telescope software

The software giant Microsoft presented the "World Telescope" at the TED technology conference, software that will allow virtual space travel and will be launched in a few months

Microsoft recently revealed at the TED conference for technology, entertainment and design a close-up image of real celestial bodies, taken with a virtual telescope. Microsoft demonstrated the "Worldwide Telescope" (Worldwide Telescope), which aroused many expectations, on Monday in California.

The World Telescope is similar to the SKY feature in Google Earth software, but provides a more extensive virtual map of tens of millions of digital images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Sloan Digital Sky Scanner, and more. The project was headed by the late Jim Gray, to whom Microsoft dedicated the World Telescope, which anyone can download to their personal computer.

The telescope allows surfers to wander and focus on any visible object in the night sky, to view at will at any resolution the Big Dipper, Mars or the first galaxy that appeared after the Big Bang. The system also allows people to read relevant data and stories or view context messages about everything they see, as updated from online sources.

A telescope for every child

Astrophysicist Roy Gold from Harvard University, who demonstrated the use of the telescope software together with the chief researcher on behalf of Microsoft, Curtis Wong, said that the technology holds promise for research in the field and for the benefit of humanity. "The World Telescope took the best images from the best telescopes on Earth and in space, and put them together into a unified, holistic view of the universe," Gold said. "The new resource will change the way we study astronomy, the way we teach astronomy and most importantly, I believe it is going to change the way we see ourselves and the universe."

Microsoft also unveiled a website to promote the project, but the product itself will only be available in a few months, in the spring of 2008. "This way you can cross the universe on a virtual journey," said Gold. "This is an example of where scientists and scientific education should go. I hope it will be on every child's home computer", he concluded.