22 August 2007

Google Earth 'turned on its head' with new Sky service

Google is aiming to "take Google Earth and turn it on its head" by providing a new star-gazing service.

Commenting on the Google Sky product, Ed Parsons, geospatial technologist at Google, told the BBC that the new service allows people to view imagery of space rather than objects from above.

Users will be able to look at images of over one million stars and 200 million galaxies, while more enhanced features will let people see pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope.

"Click a button and the world flips round and you see the sky from that particular location," Mr Parsons told the new corporation.

"[The view] would be the constellations that you would see oriented in the sky on that particular day at that particular time."

The British Astronomical Association's Dr John Mason also told the BBC that due to pollution in so many areas, people can only view "a few dozen" stars when they look up. He added that Google's new product will be a good thing if it helps people realise what they are missing.

Earlier this week, NAC Enhanced Google Earth was released, which provides a new user interface to boost efficiency.

The changes mean that people can get driving directions to destinations with and without street addresses.

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