Google Earth Gets Star-Gazing Add On

Tom F writes to mention BBC News is reporting that Google has released a new add on for Google Earth that will allow users to search a 3D rendition of over 1 million stars and 200 million galaxies called Google Sky. "Optional layers allow users to explore images from the Hubble Space Telescope as well as animations of lunar cycles. [...] Users can overlay the night sky with other information such as galaxies, constellations and detailed images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Imagery for the system came from six research institutions including the Digital Sky Survey Consortium, the Palomar Observatory in California and the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre. "

Another suggestion

[Sierpinski]

I remember seeing a 3D Java app from some NASA (or some NASA-related website) where you could view, in simulated real-time, the position of all the known satellites that are currently orbiting the Earth. It included the ISS, and Mir before it was brought down. I wonder if Google has any plan to incorporate that kind of thing into their application. It would be pretty cool if I could zoom into my house, and see (real-time if possible) what satellites were passing over my house just by zooming out enough.

If it's been released, where's the link

[ahecht]

The article doesn't have a download link, and a Google search turns up nothing. Where's the link?

You hear it here first

[12357bd]

Just a month ago (July/12) ... GoogleSky [slashdot.org] .. talking about scanning astronomical plates.

The curious thing is that the .com domain was registered just on Jun/29!, and the domain name servers seems not to be updated yet (Aug/22), the basename url (googlesky.com) leads to a page stating the domain name is still on sale!. Vacation time at Google perhaps?

On another front, will GoogleSky add a time shift scroll control to the pages? Astronomical data can be computed if no image is available...

Re:Another suggestion

[Sierpinski]

You're thinking of JTrack:
science.nasa.gov/realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3D.html

That is the one! Thanks for the link. I did a very feeble search earlier and couldn't find it.

Sky in Google Earth is 99.9999% accurate

[GamEmpire]

The issue with Stellarium is that it isn't all 100% real information, its generated information to be somewhat accurate. Sky in Google Earth however contains actual Digital Sky Survey data and Sloan Digital Sky Survey data. Not to mention that the Space Telescope Science Institute (the people who run Hubble) was the primary research institution that worked on the project with Google. This means that besides the ground based digital data, Hubble Space Telescope images are overlayed on the sky as well. Google Sky is an actual real representation of the sky. People who say the project is half finished because the plates aren't stiched together properly are complete idiots, because its impossible to compose one complete image of the sky from thousands of "digital plates" and keep the data accurate. Sky in Google Earth data is 99.9999% accurate, and is only off by like half an arcsecond in some places.

Re:sounds...

[Anne_Nonymous]

Google allows you to overlay a map of the nearest Starbucks on the night sky.

Re:But, still no roads in Mexico on maps.google?

[Kenji DRE]

Yes, i can confirm this. Aliens always aim for the Statue of Liberty in New York first.