Google ain’t just takin’ over the planet–it’s a-takin’ over the universe. The company created a big splash a couple a weeks ago by adding stars ‘n’ planets to Google Earth. They called it Sky. So now ya’ll can look down on Google Earth and up at Google Sky.<\/p>\n
This week, the company outlines its vision for the future of astronomy and Google Sky in a paper on the arXiv and ah don’t mind tellin ya’ll it’s ambitious. Google wants astrobods to use Sky for a-storin and a-sharin their data. Here’s what Ryan “Bantam” Scranton at Google’s gotta say:<\/p>\n
Astronomical data is deceptively complex. At
\nfirst glance, it is merely the result of pointing a
\ntelescope at the sky and recording what you see.
\nIn reality, however, a scientifically useful description
\nof a single observation requires knowledge of
\nwhen it was taken, from where, over what wavelengths,
\nin what conditions, covering what area,
\nand so on. <\/em><\/p>\nThe goal of Sky is to create a general
\nframework that will enable users to access images,
\ncatalogs and any associated meta-data across
\nthe full sky in a seamless manner (Szalay & Gray
\n2001). In short, it can deliver a view of the night
\nsky across the full electromagnetic
\nspectrum to a user in an efficient and
\nscalable manner.<\/em><\/p>\nWe hope that this step towards the
\ndemocratization of science will enable a new era
\n<\/em>of visual discovery and science communication. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nSo Google Sky is set to become a virtual telescope that will allow anybody at any time to view the night sky as seen by the world’s most powerful telescopes. Personally, ah can’t wait.<\/p>\n