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Starting with our Solar System, it had images of all the eight planets plus Pluto, although no mention of Ceres or Eris. Google Sky has a collection of pre-selected heavenly bodies for people to look at. These objects were apparently all too obscure, which suggests that Google has much more work to do in mapping astral phenomena to the news. Going back over a sampling of recent Nobel Intent stories on dark matter, a 'death star,' a supernovae of unprecedented size, and random X-ray surprises, I didn't find any relevant materials. Sadly this is where the wheels start to come loose. I began my investigation by searching for some recent newsworthy astronomical events. Google naturally provides a search feature so you can find your favorite heavenly body by name or description. The length scale of a single astronomical body (galaxy, supernova, etc.) compared to the entire universe is just too disparate. I imagine this is not a shortcoming of Google's code, but a lack of detailed survey data. Understanding these is key to getting the most out of Google Sky.įor scientific inquiry, one can overlay the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation or the infrared (IR) signature of the universe on top of the visual sky that you are looking at unfortunately this only worked at zoom levels above a certain point-often too big to see any of the features of individual bodies. Along with simply being able to view our Universe, Google has added a trio of interesting overlays, each with user controllable transparency.

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To help you understand where you are and how to get where you might like to go, the Google Sky screen displays the right ascension (RA) and declination (DEC) of where your pointer is at all times (RA and DEC are coordinates in the equatorial coordinate system that astronomers use to pinpoint astronomical bodies). I spent some time exploring the universe from my sofa, which is what Google Sky is all about.

There's the familiar zoom level bar on the left, and one can scan via a set of buttons or by dragging the mouse around the screen. Hands on with Google SkyĪt first glance, Google Sky has an interface-and response speed-very similar to that of Google Maps. In what follows, we briefly review Google Sky while pointing out some of the most interesting and impressive destinations to be found. While previously available as an addition to Google Earth, this new version is accessible through a web browser and makes sharing images as easy as sharing a hyperlink to a web page. On Friday, Google-after showing everyone what the Earth, our moon, and Mars looks like-turned its attention to Google Sky. Starting with the solar system, then the constellations, then our galactic neighbors, and finally a depiction of the known universe at the time, the Atlas was fascinating. While the maps of Earth were fascinating, what held my attention were the pictures of the heavens. When I was young, my parents had a copy of the National Geographic Atlas-the one that weighs around 30 pounds.