Digital Trends

The free Google Earth mapping service has added a new "Sky" feature, encouraging users to explore over 100 million stars and 200 million galaxies, as seen from Earth.

The popular Google Earth mapping application, famous for its satellite imagery and community-created maps and data layers, has lifted its eyes above the horizon with a new "Sky" feature which enables users to explore more than 100 million stars and 200 million galaxies as seen from Earth. The application features high-resolution images and data overlaps which offer a unique way for users to explore the sky and learn about space.

"We're excited to provide users with rich astronomical imagery and enhanced content that enables them to both learn about what they're seeing above and tell their own stories," said Google Product Manager Lior Ron, in a release . "By working with some of the industry's leading experts, we've been able to transform Google Earth into a virtual telescope."

Birthed by Google's Pittsburg engineering team from data supplied by Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the Digital Sky Survey Consortium (DSSC), CalTech's Palomar Observatory, the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC), and the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO, Sky offers aims to encourage backyard astronomy by letting users quickly and intuitively access information about constellations, the Moon, local planets, exoplanets(!), stars, and galaxies, along with imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope.

To access Sky, users just need to download the newest version of Google Earth, then click "Switch to Sky" from Google Earth's "View" dropdown menu on the application toolbar. The Sky navigation interface is very similar to the standard Google Earth navigation tools, including zooming, dragging, searching, layer selection, and bookmarking. And Google Earth is free, available for PCs, Macs, and Linux systems.