Microsoft Has Released Their WorldWide Telescope

Written by Marko on May 18, 2008

Microsoft has released their WorldWide Telescope (WWT) software and it is freely downloadable in WorldWideTelescope.Com website. As Microsoft says, “The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe.”

WWT is a powerful education tool of science enabling the observations of the sky for anyone, says Bill Gates. WWT seems to very very easy to use and it contains terabytes of pictures of the celestial objects. It looks like WWT will play major role in schools when teaching astronomy, and that is just great! I wish we had such a software when I was in school.

The mission of the WWT is twofold:

- To aggregate scientific data from major telescopes, observatories and institutions and make temporal and multi-spectral studies available through a single cohesive Internet–based portal.

- To re-awaken the interest for science in the younger generations through astronomy and new technologies through the virtual observatory of the WWT. This also provides a wonderful base for teaching astronomy, scientific discovery, and computational science.

WWT searches NASA’s real pictures for its background. One can browse the targets of a certain area of the sky or pick them up from a certain real telescope database. WWT reminds Google’s Sky, but it is much easier and straightforward to use. WWT also contains features to help you explore the Earth, satellites, such as the Moon, and 360 degree panoramas of Yosemite’s Half Dome and other locations.

Computer requirements are pretty high for using WWT. 2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 128 MB video card and XP- or Vista operating system are required.

This article was written by Marko Pyhajarvi and its original location is in HomeboyAstronomy.Com astronomy blog. For more great astronomy articles, please visit HomeboyAstronomy.Com