You have to see this: The WorldWide Telescope application

This is one of the neatest tools that I’ve ever seen. I am no astronomy zealot, but I like most people are interested in seeing “what’s up there” and this tool is great for allowing amateurs like me and kids (or people in general) who want to learn about the Galaxy (as best we can see it).

Of course, from a Technical (Developers) perspective, I find it interesting that it’s built on Silverlight and the .NET Framework (2.0). When you download it, try zooming in and out on some of the planets, the detail on some of them is phenomenal.

Here’s how the creators of the application describe:

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is 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.

Choose from a growing number of guided tours of the sky by astronomers and educators from some of the most famous observatories and planetariums in the country. Feel free at any time to pause the tour, explore on your own (with multiple information sources for objects at your fingertips), and rejoin the tour where you left off. Join Harvard Astronomer Alyssa Goodman on a journey showing how dust in the Milky Way Galaxy condenses into stars and planets. Take a tour with University of Chicago Cosmologist Mike Gladders two billion years into the past to see a gravitational lens bending the light from galaxies allowing you to see billions more years into the past.

I’d heard about this project, from the Tech-news site and some internal email threads, but I hadn’t bothered to look at it until this morning. It’s great fun! Check out the images that I just grabbed of Jupiter and Neptune; I plan on using Neptune as a Desktop background.