Microsoft has launched its Worldwide Telescope yesterday bringing together images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and few others right to your desktop.

“The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe,” said Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman, in a statement.

The program allows users to travel the galaxy on their own or take guided tours of destinations out-space developed by astronomers and academics. It also provides a number of different telescopes and easy switching between different light wavelengths.

Here is a closer look at the system requirements:
2GHz or faster processor
2GB of RAM
1-10GB of free disk space
Graphics card with 128 MB RAM or 256 VRAM
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista
Net connection
Macs must run Windows OS

Ironically, they can make a piece of software that can go to the moon but can’t seem to fix their own operating systems like XP or Vista.

Atleast we can be glad that we don’t have to billionaires or book a ticket on the next commercial shuttle out of orbit to experience all this.

Google launched their own version called Sky sometime back too which also comes with an add-on for Google Earth.

Check them all out and let me know what you think right here…