WorldWide Telescope from MS Research | AzureJournal

Microsoft has announced today what is called WorldWide Telescope, a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope— bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe.

WorldWide Telescope is an observatory on your desktop, allowing you to see the sky in a way you have never seen it before through individual exploration, multiwavelength views, stars and planets within context to each other, the ability to zoom in and out, and the capability to create and share a tour of the universe. The Visual Experience Engine delivers seamless panning zooming around the night sky. WorldWide Telescope delivers seamless integration of science-relevant information including multiwavelength, multiple telescope distributed image and data sets, and one-click contextual access to distributed Web information and data sources.

Microsoft Research is dedicating WorldWide Telescope to the memory of Jim Gray and is releasing WorldWide Telescope as a free resource to the astronomy and education communities with the hope that it will inspire and empower people to explore and understand the universe as never before.

It sounds very interesting except for the fact that the Tour page is not working right now.