May 15, 2008
By Edward C. Baig
USA Today
Microsoft's new WorldWide Telescope program is a heavenly tool for anyone who finds the stars and planets intoxicating. Consumers who download the first public test version, which Microsoft made available this week, can blast off to Mars, Venus and beyond, right from their PCs.
The program stitches together data and images from NASA's Hubble, Spitzer and other world-class telescopes. But it's not just a collection of stellar images. Microsoft has surveyed the entire sky. As you zoom in with your mouse on celestial objects, you'll feel like Captain Kirk exploring the final frontier.
You can examine the universe in visible light (what we can normally see) or switch to X-ray and other views. That's important. Most of the action in the universe can be seen only in these other wavelengths of light, including black holes, says researcher Roy Gould at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Having "the world's greatest telescopes at your disposal has been the holy grail of astronomers," says Gould, who helped Microsoft demo WorldWide Telescope at the prestigious TED conference in February. "There's been talk for years of a national virtual observatory, and this is an example of what that would be like."
The full article is available in the Library's LexisNexis database. Off-campus users Need to log in first.
