May 6, 2008 Vol. 1, Issue 4
Microsoft Corporation is scheduled to debut the World Wide Telescope, a free web-based program that promises users comprehensive, seamless pans amidst all the latest captured astronomical imagery from across the globe and sky.
This portal will blend terabytes of data from world-wide satellite and terrestrial telescope feeds and then dish it up — Terraserver-style — in navigable, customizable format.
Demonstrating the stunning recent gains in internet-scale database and transaction processing, the World Wide Telescope’s zoom-able details are copious: multi-wavelength (optical, x-ray, radio) views of stars and planets presented in proper context. Using Microsoft’s Virtual Experience Engine, the program promises to pan seamlessly, zoom easily in/out, and allow for the simple creation of individual styled tours. The popular sneak preview of the World Wide Telescope at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference in February featured a tour created by a school-age child.
The main image sources for the telescope include multi-wave images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Two Micron All Sky Survey, and the Digitized Palomar All Sky. As well, all pertinent written data is promised to be delivered via a one-click system linking to distributed web information.
Microsoft Research is releasing the telescope free of cost in honor of database guru Jim Gray, inventor of TerraServer, who conceived and drove the World Wide Telescope project for over a decade ago until his sudden disappearance last January 2007, while sailing in San Francisco Bay. A distinguished engineer in Microsoft’s eScience Group, Gray was first drawn to the task because the heavy astronomical images would test the limits of what was known about database scaling and transaction speeds. In 1998, as he started helping the astronomers get all their data online, Gray created SkyServer and contributed to the development Sloan Digital Sky Survey on his way towards the World Wide Telescope. The TerraServer technology he also helped develop was used to try to locate his missing sailboat.
While the telescope is free, there’s little doubt about its sponsorship: it runs only on Windows.
