Google Earth Sky Adds Live Images from Space

Google and Slooh have announced a partnership which will bring the live astronomy service to Google Earth Sky. As part of the partnership, many of the images captured with Slooh until now will be available in Google Earth as well as a dedicated layer in Sky.

"Sharing a joint mission to map the universe, Slooh and Google today unveiled the launch of the Slooh layer in Google Earth, a live astronomy feature that brings the power of live space exploration to Google's global audience," Slooh said.

"The new Slooh 'map the universe' layer integrates Slooh's Space Camera technology and worldwide network of powerful robotic mountaintop telescopes with the Google Earth application," it added.

The deal enabled Google to add images for 35,000 new celestial bodies in Google Earth Sky. New images taken by Slooh users will be added to the dedicated layer.

All of these images will be available to all Google Earth users. However, those who are also Slooh members can control one of the robotic telescopes the company has under its command.

They will be able to join existing missions or take photos themselves, label them and then upload them to Google Earth for everyone to see.

Even more interesting, all Google Earth users will be able to join some of the missions which will be broadcast live. These broadcasts will focus on celestial events such as eclipses, transits, comets or supernova discoveries. The first such public mission will be a lunar eclipse on December 21.

The move should prove mutually beneficial for both companies. On the one hand, Google gets to add more content to Sky and a couple of new interesting features for users, not the least of which are the live events.

Slooh, on the other hand, gets to expose its products to a potentially huge market and one that may already be at least marginally interested in astronomy.