Putting Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope Under a Lens

Imagine being able to travel through space. I know, that's not much of a cerebral exercise, but my brain is still recovering from what I'll call society's "trickle down" effect on human behavior, but I digress. The point is that yet another simple-minded task has been rendered unnecessary by an advancement in computer technology. Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope gives you a seat smack-dab in the middle of the universe and lets you control where you want to go. Not literally, of course. I'm talking about from your desktop. Wow, you've got some imagination!

The application is available via a free download from this site. In order to utilize the software, users must be connected to the Internet. Other than that (and a few other system requirements, which I will get into later), users have access to a 3D representation of the universe, which includes information and images gathered from some of world's most well-known telescopes and observatories, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

(Hubble Image of Crab Nebula)

Because this is a free, beta version of the software, there are some images that aren't entirely accurate, but as I said before, you'd have to really know your astronomy to catch such slip-ups. And make no mistake, overall, the information is extremely accurate. The main purpose of this version is to help educate the uneducated, especially young minds that could potentially have a bright future in astronomy or science in general.

Project Origins

The project was based on the ideas of Curtis Wong, manager of Microsoft's Next Media Research group, and Jim Gray, who was unfortunately lost at sea off the Northern California coast in January 2007, before he could see his ideas fully realized. Gray initially wanted to find a way to make astronomical data available for scientists, but it was Wong who said to him, "let's bring all this data and make it available, accessible and engaging to the public." It was because of this tragic accident that Wong decided to set the project in motion and dedicate it to his late friend.

(Europa - smallest of Galilean moons of Jupiter)

Unfortunately for Microsoft, this isn't the first interactive representation of the universe to come out. One of their top competitors, Google, recently unveiled the web-based version of their Google Sky application, which provides a similar searchable map service for outer space. This, of course, was a follow up to the release several years ago of Google Earth, which, instead of looking up into the sky, looks down on the earth.

Besides being web-based, Google Sky is unique because it allows the user to view the night sky with certain overlays, such as infrared and cosmic microwave background radiation. You can also view images in non-visible spectra, like X-ray and UV-ray. Navigation was made easy through the use of right ascension and declination - the two coordinates of the equatorial coordinate system, which is used to locate celestial bodies. And because it's Google, there is a search feature that allows you to search for individual celestial bodies.

But Google Sky didn't get the rave reviews Worldwide Telescope has gotten so far. In fact, some have said that the images produced by Google Sky are of lower quality than what would be generated by a Google Image search. Perhaps the disparity can be attributed to its web-based functionality, or by the same token, Microsoft's prolonged development process. Either way, it's worth it to provide a detailed analysis of the Worldwide Telescope's true capability.

Specifications

I mentioned earlier that in order to use Worldwide Telescope, you have to download the software and be connected to the Internet. However, there are some pretty hefty system requirements as well. For one, they recommend that you run it on Windows Vista (FYI - it only works with a Windows OS), with an Intel Core 2 Duo chip with 2 GHz, and at least 1GB of RAM. This is all recommended, mind you, but the minimum requirements are there as well.

The first thing you see when you open the program is a view of the night sky with stick drawings of all of the constellations. Instead of being a flat, distorted view (as in Google Sky) the view is from the center of a sphere, or the equatorial coordinate system. The navigation in the Worldwide Telescope is more advanced as well. In addition to having the right ascension and declination, there are up to seven tabs (Explore, Guided Tours, Search, Community, Telescope, View, and Settings) with multiple options in each for you to choose from. You move around by clicking and dragging with the left mouse button, and holding down Ctrl or the center mouse button will rotate your view. Scrolling the mouse wheel zooms in and out and right clicking will display information about the celestial body.

Worldwide Telescope has the same Google Sky feature that allows you to view space in the non-visible spectrum, only there are more options to choose from. There is also a larger collection of more detailed images from the different telescopes. For example, one can actually look at the ring of dark matter in the cluster ZwCl0024+1652. Overall, it presents a much more vivid experience of outer space. Here's what Roy Gould, the man who unveiled Worldwide Telescope at the Technology Entertainment Design (TED) conference in February, had to say:

Even though you can download any professional image of the universe now online, it's a fragment. This puts it together seamlessly and gives you the impression that you're traveling through space.

A Guided Tour

Ultimately, the most talked about feature of Worldwide Telescope is the Guided Tours. Basically they are tours of the Worldwide Telescope universe given by everyone from experts to average users and accompanied by music, text, and/or voice-overs (there is one tour done by a six-year-old boy taking you to the Ring Nebula). Right now, there are around 30 tours available, discussing everything from how to use the software to different celestial phenomena.

(Ring Nebula)

There is even a way for you to make your own tour. Under the "Learning WWT" section, there is an option that teaches you how to create your own tour across space and time. For example, you could make a tour of the next lunar eclipse. All you need to do is go under the "Guided Tours" section and select "Create New Tour." From there you put in your basic tour information, such as the author, a description, the experience level (beginner, intermediate, or advanced), and the taxonomy. Then you add slides (screen shots) to your slide show. The more creative options include adding text, images, and sound via upload widgets. Finally, you can share your tour with other users by clicking "Submit Tour for Publication" under the "Guided Tours" tab.

The Worldwide Telescope is definitely a breakthrough in data sharing. The world now has access to the most advanced astronomical data out there, but it's not just useful to people curious about space. There is also a professional version being developed with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. And, of course, improvements are being made to the current version as we speak. For example, they are expected to take a page from Google Sky by allowing users to use application programming interfaces (APIs) to put models of the data they put on Worldwide Telescope onto their own sites. Nevertheless, it is already an invaluable tool for all those eager to learn.