WorldWide Telescope

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a computer program created by Microsoft running under either a Microsoft Windows client or a new cross platform web client based on Silverlight which allows its users to view outer space. It was announced at the TED Conference in Monterey, California in February, 2008. Users are able to pan around outer space and zoom as far into any one area as the data will allow. Images are taken from the Hubble Space Telescope... more

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a computer program created by Microsoft running under either a Microsoft Windows client or a new cross platform web client based on Silverlight which allows its users to view outer space. It was announced at the TED Conference in Monterey, California in February, 2008. Users are able to pan around outer space and zoom as far into any one area as the data will allow. Images are taken from the Hubble Space Telescope and approximately ten earth-bound telescopes. It is possible to view the sky in many wavelengths of light. The software utilizes Microsoft's Visual Experience Engine technologies to function. The WWT project began in 2002, at Microsoft Research and Johns Hopkins University. Database researcher Jim Gray had developed a satellite Earth-images database (Terraserver) and wanted to apply a similar technique to organizing the many disparate astronomical databases of sky images. As of October 2008, WWT had "1.5 million active users." WorldWide... less