The beginning of the New Year brought a new set of features and content for Sky in Google Earth. A magnificent sight, truly, and the value of it is even greater, because most of the new images, views and sounds have been developed by the Sky community.

"Using NASA's space telescopes, you can view how the universe looks at many different wavelengths - from X-rays, ultraviolet and infrared light all the way through to radio waves. You can also play with the transparency of the different overlays for the Sombrero galaxy to see how different parts of the galaxy light up in different wavelengths", is what the blog announcing the update says. Just picture having access to all the tools you want for watching the sky at all times!

In case you're a night sky watcher, the Earth & Sky layer has been added podcasts that let users know everything that's about to happen on the sky or related to it, from meteor showers and eclipses down to the latest news from the world of astronomy.

Those who have an extra passion for history will be satisfied to find that the new version also includes some glimpses of the sky, as it was seen by the astronomers in the 17th century, drawn from the David Rumsey collection and from the U.S. Naval Library. Among others, they also show the difference in perspective that people had back then and just how much we've gone forward technologically (as if we hadn't already known). Imagine seeing a dragon on a map of the sky, a laughable perspective now, pretty much real thought and perception back then.

Last but not least, the Google Maps API has been added availability of Sky, Moon and Mars imagery, allowing any developer the opportunity to build applications and websites using imagery from the services mentioned above.