“We are bringing the sky into the living room,” said Samuel Wiedmann, head of Google’s geo-products division, at the Hamburg presentation. Images of 100 million stars and 200 million galaxies were available. The computer-based observatory uses controls similar to Google Earth, letting users search for stars and planets and pan across the sky.
Selecting a celestial body reveals information including its size, position, and orbit, together with additional telescope imagery such as high-resolution pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. Users can display constellations as connected points, take virtual tours of galaxies, and view animations of planetary movement.
Scientific institutions including NASA supplied the astronomical images and data. Google described the collection as the largest publicly available set of astronomical imagery at the time.
Google Earth users need version 4.2 to access Sky. The update was not initially available everywhere on the day of the announcement but was expected worldwide by the following day. The first Google Sky release provided English text only, with a German edition planned.
