Building the world wide telescope with computer scientists and astronomers throughout the world. This is a great demo of web services, cloud computing and database technology
WorldWide Telescope
The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground- and space-based telescopes in the world to enable seamless, guided explorations of the universe. Visit the WorldWide Telescope Web site.
About WorldWide Telescope
WorldWide Telescope enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich immersive experience.
WorldWide Telescope is a collaborative effort between Microsoft Research and a variety of academic and governmental agencies. Microsoft Research is making WorldWide Telescope available as a free resource to the astronomy and education community with the hope that it will inspire and empower people to explore and understand the universe as never before.
Feature Stories
WorldWide Telescope: The Universe at Your Fingertips
Imagine the universe. Vast, beautiful, mysterious, it has inspired wonder for millennia—wonder and humility. A clear, twinkling nighttime sky can summon reflections on life, our role in it, its very meaning. Read more...
Microsoft Research Unveils More Than 100 Innovations for Future of Computing
Researchers introduce new technologies to explore distant galaxies, bring friends and co-workers closer, and teach kids the magic of programming. Read more...
Publications
- Where the Rubber Meets the Sky: Bridging the Gap between Databases and Science
Jim Gray; Alex Szalay. December 2004. - The World-Wide Telescope, an Archetype for Online Science
Jim Gray, Alexander S. Szalay. June 2002. - The World Wide Telescope
Jim Gray; Alexander Szalay. August 2001 - Virtual Observatory: The World Wide Telescope (MS-TR-2001-77)
General audience piece for Science Magazine, V.293 pp. 2037-2038. 14 Sept 2001. By Alexander S. Szalay and Jim Gray.
Talks
- Online Science: The World-Wide Telescope (Research Channel, February 26, 2002).
- Online Science: A talk on the WorldWide Telescope, University of California, Santa Cruz. April 10, 2002 (PowerPoint, 4 MB).
- Online Science: A talk on the WorldWide Telescope, IBM, April 5, 2002, and WDAS in Paris, March 21, 2002 (PowerPoint, 2 MB).
- Online Science (WorldWide Telescope and SkyServer, University of Washington, Seattle. February 26, 2002 (PowerPoint, 5 MB).
- Mining the Sky: Building the WorldWide Telescope: SC2001, November 14, 2001, WSU, JHU, UCI (PowerPoint, 4 MB).
In the News
- A New Cosmos On the Web
- Two New Ways to Explore the Virtual Universe, in Vivid 3-D
- Microsoft launches space tours on the Web
- Microsoft Telescope Will Bring Universe to the Desktop
- WorldWide Telescope Brings Space Exploration to Earth
- Microsoft's TechFest features 'World-wide Telescope'
- Microsoft Turns Your PC into a Ground-Based Telescope
- The World-Wide Telescope - Science Mag.
- The World-Wide Telescope - MSDN
- Heavens Above: Astronomers Worldwide Look to Microsoft Technology, Researchers to Harness Galaxies of Data
