explore 3D universe through world wide telescope

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microsoft has released a web2.0 portal called world wide telescope, a wonderful portal as a dedicated free resource toward worlds astronomical community and science and education community and in the memory of Jim gray that will enable user to view and experience the whole universe sky map in a virtual guided  tour.this portal will function as a virtual telescope from within your desktop.you can view earth,night earth ,skymap,planets,milkyway,and virtually the whole universe in a virtual 3d world. WorldWide Telescope delivers seamless integration of science-relevant information including multiwavelength, multiple-telescope distributed image and data sets, and one-click contextual access to distributed Web information and data sources. From http://www.worldwidetelescope.org

You can view the entire solar system in 3-D with light and shadows created from the sun. You also can watch planets orbit around the sun, and moons orbit around planets.

created with Microsoft’s high-performance Visual Experience Engine, enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience.

WorldWide Telescope minimum system requirements (For PC):

• Microsoft® XP SP2 (minimum), Windows® Vista® (recommended)
• PC with Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2 gigahertz (GHz) or faster, recommended
• 1 gigabyte (GB) of RAM; 2 GB RAM recommended
• 3D accelerated card with 128 megabytes (MB) RAM; discrete graphics card with dedicated 256-MB VRAM recommended for higher performance
• 1 GB of available hard disk space; 10 GB recommended for off-line features and higher performance browsing
• XGA (1024 x 768) or higher resolution monitor
• Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing and scrolling device
• Microsoft® DirectX® version 9.0c and .NET Framework 2.0
• Required for some features; Internet connection at 56 Kbps or higher through either an Internet service provider (ISP) or a network. Internet access might require a separate fee to an ISP; local or long-distance telephone charges might also apply

you can download the software for offline or online viewing or you can use the web portal.
Estimated download time 1 hour (56Kb), 10 minutes (DSL 512Kb)

site : http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

tour: http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/ExperienceIt/ExperienceIt.aspx

a wonderful tool to use and experience, the never before reachable skymap data released by Microsoft in free would enable every user an opportunity to look at the sky in disbelief and thank to Microsoft for their wonderful work and dedication toward the peoples.