Microsoft set to launch WorldWide Telescope, Gates says
InformationWeek | at | by Mike
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said Friday that his company plans to launch its WorldWide Telescope project, Redmond's answer to Google Sky, by the end of May.
"This is taking data that's very complex, gathered over many years from many telescopes, and making it accessible," said Gates, during a speech in Jakarta, Indonesia, according to PC World.
WorldWide Telescop is "a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope," says the project's Web site.
The online service combines terabytes of celestial images and other data that users can pan across using a viewer that employs Microsoft's Visual Experience Engine. WorldWide Telescope also includes interactive links to audio and video presentations that offer more information about the part of space that the user is viewing.