Popular mapping service Google Earth will launch a new feature called Sky, a "virtual telescope" that the search engine hopes will turn millions of Internet users into stargazers. Google (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research), which created Google Earth to give Internet users an astronaut's view that can zoom to street level, said the service would be a playground for learning about space. "Never before has a roadmap of the entire sky been made so readily available," said Dr. Carol Christian of the Space Telescope Science Institute, who co-led the institute's Sky team. Sky in Google Earth will foster and initiate new understanding of the universe by bringing it to everyone's home computer."
Like Google Earth, Sky will enable users to float and zoom in on over 100 million individual stars and 200 million galaxies. Users will view the sky as seen from earth.
It has created different layers which will show the life of a star, constellations, high-resolution images provided by the Hubble Space Telescope and a users guide to galaxies. (Reuters UK)
