While using Google Earth suddenly we thought that it only shows the earth and noting else and if there was any way to see other planets and the space too. Luckily we didn't had to research a lot as we have found this very useful software WorldWide Telescope. It is a software developed by Microsoft and its very useful for watching the space planets and all other celestial bodies.WWT was announced at the TED Conference in Monterey, California in February 2008.Users are able to pan around outer space and zoom as far into any one area as the data will allow. Images are taken from the Hubble Space Telescope and approximately ten earth-bound telescopes. It is possible to view the sky in many wavelengths of light. The software utilizes Microsoft's Visual Experience Engine technologies to function. The program runs under either a Microsoft Windows or a web client based on Silverlight. The program is designed to scale from web browser to desktop to large multi-channel full dome digital planetarium. The WWT has five modes sky, earth, planets, panoramas and solar systems.
The WWT project began in 2002, at Microsoft Research and Johns Hopkins University. Database researcher Jim Gray had developed a satellite Earth-images database (Terraserver) and wanted to apply a similar technique to organizing the many disparate astronomical databases of sky images.
As of October 2008, WWT had "1.5 million active users."
As of February 2012 the earth science applications of WWT are showcased and supported by the Layerscape community collaboration website, also created by Microsoft Research.
Modes :
- Sky Mode : It is the main feature of the software and allows users to see digital pictures of many celestial bodies by the pictures of earth based telescopes like Hubble space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
- Earth : This mode is similar to Google Earth NASA World Wind and Microsoft Virtual Earth. This feature allows the users to view Earth in 3D model. Unlike others WWT supports many different map projections.
- Planets : The planet mode allows users to see all 7 planets, Pluto, Moons of Jupiter, our moon and uniquely it allows the users to see a Mandelbrot set.
- Panorama : The main feature of Panorama is that it allows you to see Mars Rover Panoramas and Picture of Building 99. Many other Panoramas are also there.
- Solar System : This mode displays the major solar system objects from the Sun to Pluto, and Jupiter's moons, orbits of all solar system moons, all 550,000+ minor planets all positioned with their correct scale, position and phase. The user can move forward and backward in time at various rates, or type in a time and date for which to view the positions of the planets, and can select viewing location. The program can show the solar system the way it would look from any location at any time between 1 AD and 4000 AD. Using this tool a user can watch an eclipse, occultation, or astronomical alignment, and preview where the best spot might be to observe a future event. In this mode it is possible to zoom away from the Solar System, through the Milky Way, and out into the cosmos to see a hypothetical view of the entire known universe. Other bodies, spacecraft and orbital reference frames can be added and visualized in the Solar System Mode using the layer manager.
To take a trial of the WorldWide Telescope online Visit this page.
System requirements :
To install WWT in your PC successfully your computer must meet the following requirements :
Windows :
- Windows 7 or Windows 8 (older versions of Windows are not supported)
- Discrete graphics card with 512 MB VRAM
- DirectX 10 or DirectX 11 compatibility
- High-end GTX 480 class or better
- 1 GB VRAM recommended
- Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
- Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
Size : 103 MB
Developer : Microsoft Research.
Version : 5.1.109
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