Unless you’ve been living under a rock,* you’re surely aware of Google Earth by now. You may even have played around with Google Moon and Google Mars. Now check out Google Sky.

To help you explore the far reaches of our universe, we have teamed up with astronomers at some of the largest observatories in the world to bring you a new view of the sky. Using Google Maps this tool provides an exciting way to browse and explore the universe. You can find the positions of the planets and constellations on the sky and even watching the birth of distant galaxies as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The tool combines data from the massive Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Chandra and GALEX satellites, and several other sources, and even allows you to view objects in different wavelengths. The latest version of Google Earth also incorporates the Sky images, so all you have to do is look up.

Pretty!


*A rock with, um, internet access.