Sky for Google Earth

The latest version (4.2) of Google Earth now lets you look up into the skies and explore the universe by zooming into distant galaxies / stars located millions of light years away, explore the constellations, see the planets in motion, and witness a supernova explosion.

According to The New York Times, more than one million photographs from Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Palomar Observatory at the California Institute of Technology and the NASA-financed Hubble were stitched together to help stargazers explore the universe from the comfort of their chairs.

Once you’ve downloaded Google Earth 4.2, click on the sky button or go to “view” menu and click on “Switch to Sky”. From here, you can explore the sky just like how you explorer earth using mouse and keyboard to navigate. Check out this video tour by Google:

It’s pretty unbelievable that such an innovative service from Google isn’t making any money for the company. Google has absolutely no plans to make profits out of Google Earth.

It looks like people really love exploring the sky. It has just been a day since this feature was launched and people have already found blacked-out area and a hidden feature as well

This post was published by on August 23, 2007

About the Author: Thilak Rao works as a Social Media Expert. He is one of the first professional bloggers from India, and he loves to write, travel and click photos. Follow him on Twitter @thilak

  • http://shauncarter.com Shaun Carter

    I think this is pretty cool. As for the lack of monetization, Google is more interested in building a loyal userbase. Most of the new services they come out with are not monetized, but they make it up when those same users convert to Google search and click on Adwords advertisements. That’s the bread and butter of this company.

  • http://www.audiomecca.com Audio Mecca

    Just read this at a couple of other places as well. This seems to be all over the blogosphere. The video has already had more than 1 million views. Its a great idea. I have been a great fan of Google Earth and use it extensively to search up locations and addresses.

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