InsideGoogle

Google Earth Goes Into Space

Google Earth added a really cool feature, turning the satellite camera around and looking to the stars. You’ll need to install the latest version of Google Earth, which has a button on the toolbar to activate the new feature. The button will switch you to the view of the sky above your current location, so you can see the sky above your home (though probably without the environmental and light pollution that normally gets in the way.

When looking at the sky, you can activate various layers and zoom in on them as you would if you, too, had a mega-billion dollar space telescope. Layers include constellations (which maps them out for you), “backyard astronomy”, the Hubble showcase (which overlays better images from Hubble in some areas with bubbles for more info), the moon and the planets (which has a time slider so you can actually see them orbiting over a three month period), a user’s guide to the galaxy (what, no Hitchhiker’s Guide?), and the life of a star.

This video shows it in action:

There’s so much more to Sky than what meets the eye. After you download the new Google Earth, check out our Google Earth Gallery for fascinating examples of natural phenomena, Asteroids, or just take a tour of the sky. Since people across the world all share the same sky, we’re happy to announce we’ll be making Sky available in 13 languages.

UPDATE: Here’s another video Google made, featuring Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, talking about the new feature:

August 23rd, 2007 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Google Earth, Products, General | one comment