Microsoft WorldWide Telescope
Microsoft officially launched the free online WorldWide Telescope, which allows Internet denizens to pan around and zoom through the night sky.
Developed over the last six years, Microsoft is releasing the application free of charge in part to show off its Visual Experience Engine. The engine provides smooth panning and zooming that allows viewers to focus on a particular planet or cluster of stars without abandoning the scale of the area surrounding it.
“Users can see the X-ray view of the sky, zoom into bright radiation clouds, and then cross-fade into the visible light view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from a thousand years ago,” said Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics researcher Roy Gould of the new service.
The website has already caused a stir among technology bloggers.
Some were unimpressed and said similar applications were already available, however Robert Scoble, an American blogger and former Microsoft employee, claimed he shed a tear while watching a demonstration of the WorldWide Telescope earlier this year.
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