Google Sky Now Available Through Your Browser

Ars Technica brings word that Google Sky, formerly only available as an extension of the Google Earth software, is now accessible through your web browser. The interface of Google Sky is quite similar to that of Google Maps, complete with search and alternate views by spectrum. The story also mentions (and more importantly, links) ten of the more interesting sights. We discussed Google Sky's initial release last year. Quoting: "Visible light only shows us a small picture of the entire universe; non-visible spectra such as ultraviolet (UV), infrared and X-ray hold a whole other world of information. Here is where Google Sky becomes very cool. There are three more sections that highlight fantastic images from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the GALEX Evolution Explorer (UV), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (IR). What makes these very cool is that under each selected body there is a slider that will change the displayed image back and forth between the visible and invisible spectrum."

intergalactic law

[bjmoneyxxx]

What would be the repercussions if, for example viewing certain systems in the x-ray wavelength was forbidden by some wild alien race? Would they go after the entire earth, the individual people who looked, or what? Ideas?

Google Maps Off the Map

[Doc Ruby]

Anyone know why my Google Maps pages suddenly turned blank sometime last fall, when I apt-get upgraded a whole bunch of apps in Ubuntu (sometime after the release of 7.10)? I don't know which upgraded app caused it, because there was a week or two with a lot of upgrades on different days, after which maps.google.com stopped working, and I can't roll each back just to get back the Google maps - there's too many, and I'm too busy. I've searched the Web several times over the past 3-4 months, but no sign of anyone else having the problem.

I hit any maps.google.com page, any location or zoom, any of the different search/businesses/directions functions, and all I get is a page with the Search Results / Directions left column totally blank (under the two tabs). And the main map panel totally blank, light grey (the same color as this Slashdot submit form background), but with its upper right corner holding a small rectangle saying "Terrain" above a small "+" shape of blank white boxes where the NSEW/. scrolling controls were, and under that the zoom slider also just a blank white square above a blank white rectangle streching down to a blank white square, with a slider "knob" visible. But the slider doesn't slide, the clicking those controls doesn't do anything (though my cursor turns into a "clickable" hand icon over them). Over the main map my cursor stays an arrow, and clicking/dragging has no effect.

My Java/Javascript settings are all the same as before, allowing them. I've tried removing and installing Java and Flash, upgrading them, but no improvement. The pan/zoom controls actually went blank first, sometime in the late Summer (between 7.04 and 7.10), but it was no big deal, though I tried to search for others with the problem (and a solution) to no avail.

Any ideas? It all just looks like the sky on an heavy overcast day, so I guess I've had a limited "Google Sky" on my browser for almost half a year now, and I want to go back to the old Earth view instead :).

infrared

[TheSHAD0W]

The wide angle infrared view [google.com] is especially striking. I'm assuming the black slashes indicate missing imagery and not alien activity.