It was perhaps inevitable - having turned the geospatial Earth into an animated, zoomable extravaganza, Google has turned its gaze skyward. With Google Sky, the tens of thousands of Hubble based images (as well as those of more prosaic Earth-bound telescopes) have been knitted into a seamless fabric that lets you explore the universe in myriads of ways - from zooming in on the Pinwheel nebula to charting the luminescent clouds of the Eagle hatchery.
Certainly the idea that the computer can be an invaluable tool for visualizing space has been around for a while - the number of computer based planetaria is nearly as uncountable as the number of stars themselves, but it is likely that Google Sky may prove as much of a revolution in that space as Google Earth has been for the geospatial community (and in some camps not a welcome revolution at that). What Google Sky has done has been to make the skies navigable from the web - locating single points with precision (and assigning images to map to those points, at varying resolutions) makes it possible to both locate relevant points and more importantly, to turn those points into “places” of significance.
Do you want real time tracking of satellite movement, to know when the satellites will be overhead? How about seeing the orbits of various near earth asteroids? Perhaps a little more fanciful story or two is out there as well (I can already envision fifth grade science classes writing their own adventures into the Solar System, or perhaps to the stars beyond.
In an age when light pollution has made all but perhaps magnitude 1 stars visible at night, understanding the night sky, and the interest in astronomy in general, has fairly quickly receded from the priorities of this generation. I would suspect that if you asked many kids today what the zodiac is, they would tell you that its their star sign (the time when they were born) but wouldn’t be aware of the fact that the zodiac is a set of constellations along the ecliptic. Many would be unable to name all the planets.
In an environment like that, its difficult to engender a kids sense of wonder around them, to take the first steps into understanding their place in a larger world. Without that, you don’t get scientists or mathematicians, and even philosophers tend to become rare. While nothing can take away the awe of watching the Aurora Borealis on a chilly wintry evening, or the thrill of seeing the flash of meteorites during the Perseid shower, I’d like to think that Google Sky might help those kids (and their parents) reconnect just a bit with the universe around them. And this can only be good.
Certainly the idea that the computer can be an invaluable tool for visualizing space has been around for a while - the number of computer based planetaria is nearly as uncountable as the number of stars themselves, but it is likely that Google Sky may prove as much of a revolution in that space as Google Earth has been for the geospatial community (and in some camps not a welcome revolution at that). What Google Sky has done has been to make the skies navigable from the web - locating single points with precision (and assigning images to map to those points, at varying resolutions) makes it possible to both locate relevant points and more importantly, to turn those points into “places” of significance.
Do you want real time tracking of satellite movement, to know when the satellites will be overhead? How about seeing the orbits of various near earth asteroids? Perhaps a little more fanciful story or two is out there as well (I can already envision fifth grade science classes writing their own adventures into the Solar System, or perhaps to the stars beyond.
In an age when light pollution has made all but perhaps magnitude 1 stars visible at night, understanding the night sky, and the interest in astronomy in general, has fairly quickly receded from the priorities of this generation. I would suspect that if you asked many kids today what the zodiac is, they would tell you that its their star sign (the time when they were born) but wouldn’t be aware of the fact that the zodiac is a set of constellations along the ecliptic. Many would be unable to name all the planets.
In an environment like that, its difficult to engender a kids sense of wonder around them, to take the first steps into understanding their place in a larger world. Without that, you don’t get scientists or mathematicians, and even philosophers tend to become rare. While nothing can take away the awe of watching the Aurora Borealis on a chilly wintry evening, or the thrill of seeing the flash of meteorites during the Perseid shower, I’d like to think that Google Sky might help those kids (and their parents) reconnect just a bit with the universe around them. And this can only be good.
Kurt Cagle is an author, information architect and software developer specializing in XML and web technologies. He’s recently launched his new blog at MetaphoricalWeb.org, and manages the XML News Network news portal.
