back to article Google Sky brings the heavens to a browser near you

Google has unshackled its heavenly Google Sky from Google Earth and made it available to the hoi-polloi through any web browser: The browser-based Google Sky The material on offer includes some nice Hubble snaps, Chandra X-ray, GALEX Ultraviolet and Spitzer infrared showcases, and a historical layer showing how past …

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  1. Graham Dawson Silver badge
    Coat

    "Spitzer infrared showcases"

    The things people will do for a bit more exposure...

    Mine's the dirty brown mac with the camera in the buttonhole...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    cool

    We're all gonna die though, there's no sun (or sol)

    Very cool though, cold even, really really really cold.

  3. 4a$$Monkey
    Alien

    space battle

    Wow! In almost no time at all I found this image...

    http://www.google.com/sky/#latitude=66.33970959528405&longitude=-42.44293212890625&zoom=9&Spitzer=0.00&ChandraXO=0.00&Galex=0.00&IRAS=0.00&WMAP=0.00&Cassini=0.00&slide=1&mI=-1&oI=-1

    Looks like evidence for some kind of space battle to me!

  4. Sarev
    Thumb Up

    Privacy implications...

    Hopefully, amanfrommars will be writing a comment soon to complain about the privacy implications of this latest move by the big G.

  5. Adam Foxton
    Alien

    Space Battle

    Wow, that's odd!

    Any astronomers out there want to enlighten me/us to what this is? Aside from proof of phaser-weilding stealth craft?

  6. HFoster
    Alien

    Re: SpaceBattle

    It kind of does. That is, until you recall that light is itself invisible, and can only be "seen" by way of the things it reflects off of or refracts through.

    Still, there's no reason that couldn't be two laser beams passing through a very large dust/chaff/debris cloud.

    I think I must be suffering an alcohol deficiency.

  7. Miguel
    Coat

    Alan Parson's Project?

    Looks like a remnant of the "LASERS" from the Alan Parson's Project.

  8. Phil Wray
    Unhappy

    re: space battle

    after zooming in too the green beam i expected to see a star destroyer, but them pesky imperial scum must have developed clocking technology.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    @Adam Foxton

    it's a satellite going across the field of view then going into eclipse.

  10. Rafael
    Boffin

    Re: Spacebattle

    The SDSS (visible) image is a mosaic, it is not perfectly aligned. The coloured slits are the edges of the images which composed the mosaic.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Rafael

    No you're totally wrong, it's clearly the trails of two starships entering hyperspace.

  12. James Whale
    Coat

    "the hoi polloi"

    [pedant]

    "the hoi polloi" is a tautology - "hoi polloi" means "the many" in Greek, so to say "the hoi polloi" is to say "the the many".

    [/pedant]

    =D

  13. Tim
    Paris Hilton

    Anyone figured it out?

    I must admit this thingy has lost me completely, I even tried the help & about features, no luck tho. Just what am I looking at? To start with, what does the time figure represent, and how does this correalate to a position in the sky? Which way is North & East, & doesn't it need to know where I am?

    Say I want to know where a given planet will be tonight at 10pm, will this handle it, or are the times only relative (not relative in the Einstein sense, we all know that one.. or are told we do)?

    Paris.. cos she used night vision too.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    @rafael

    Spoilsport :-(

  15. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: That's no moon...

    Hello. If you want to post a Google image link that is long enough to actually reach the moon, please TinyURL the beast. Thanking you.

  16. Curtis W. Rendon
    Go

    Earth and Sky podcasts

    assuming they are the same Earth and Sky broadcasts we get on public radio they are well worth opening the pod bay doors for.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    That's no moon ...

    That so-called space battle is clearly someone having a quick game of Missile Command.

  18. Roland Korn
    Pirate

    2001, errr no, 2010. Oh whatever ....

    I could not help but noticing the regimented series of Monoliths (m) in the area of Ursa Major.

    Now what are they up to now?

    They failed spectacularly when working with the simians on this smileball. (I mean slime covered planetary body)

    Bones only because weesa-all-gonna-die (bad Jar-Jar impersonation) when the galactic bypass goes right through our neighbourhood.

  19. Rafael
    Boffin

    @Anyone figured it out?

    "Say I want to know where a given planet will be tonight at 10pm"...

    Use celestia or stellarium?

    @AC - Sorry for being a spoilsport. There is enough weirdness in the universe *without* the artifacts, just search for it (hint: Seyfert's sextet - no need for puny space death rays)

    Rafael, amateur astrogeek

  20. Simon Westerby

    Sod the star destroyers...

    .. we've found the empires next 1/2 build deathstar

    http://tinyurl.com/26bvdg

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Nice

    Nice to play with, but does it really have any real world use?

    spamme@x86it.co.uk (Send an email to this if you want to get blocked from my mailserver!)

  22. Andy
    Unhappy

    @Sarah Bee

    TinyURL? As a verb? Say it ain't so...

  23. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: @Sarah Bee

    Oh yes. That's pretty bad, isn't it. But not as bad as a link the length of the M25.

  24. Peter Johnstone

    Looking for Gallifrey

    Can anyone tell me how to find the Kasterborous galaxy on google sky?

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