Last August, I did a brief introduction on the launched of Google Sky, now Google has took it one step forward by launching a browser-based Google Sky. For me, it sounds like they’re relaunching this Google Sky. It is not the same old version of Google Sky, as I profiled in my previous post, i.e. an added new feature that existed within the Google Earth software, but users can access to it simply through a Web browser, and no software needed to download in order to use it.

According to the official Google blog, this browser-based Google Sky was done by an intern at Google, namely Diego Gavinowich. He came from Buenos Aires and was a finalist in Google’s Latin America Code Jam. It should be noted that he completed this Web version alongside with other staff engineers at Google within his internship at Google.

Since it is a browser-based Google Sky, users will be able to view the sky, search for the planets and galaxies, in addition to zoom in and out and pan around the celestial bodies. With this new release, Google now can deliver this wonderful experience to an ever larger circle of users (some users’ PCs didn’t support the software version of Google earth.) Apparently, this browser-based Google Sky is an example of Google moving back its application into browser-based, as Google is an Internet firm, we can’t imagine that we had to download a Web client in order to experience their new offerings.

I think this browser-based Google Sky is terrific, as viewed from its features that reported by Google LatLong:

- Powerful search that lets you browse tens of thousands of named objects.
- Three optical sky surveys that show you what your naked eye would see if it had a really good zoom lens. Try switching to infrared, microwave, ultraviolet, or x-ray to see the sky in a completely different light. Or blend between these views to create unique visualizations on the fly.
- Galleries highlighting the best images from Hubble and many other telescopes.
- Current planet positions and constellations.
- Overlays of custom KML content. (Simply paste a Sky KML URL into the search box, just like on Google Maps.)
- Last but not least, the Earth & Sky podcasts gallery is not to be missed, particularly for those who run a classroom.

There is also a video clip about this new release of Google, as embedded in the below.

via [The Official Google Blog]

This Wednesday Google has launched Sky in Google Earth. It is available as an added new feature in Google Earth, and offered the users to access to a hundred million stars and two hundred million galaxies with just a mouse click. The Google Sky feature can only found on the newest version of Google Earth, with the new Sky buton appeared on the toolbar at the top of the screen. Images from Google Sky came from six research institutions that include the Digital Sky Survey Consortium, the Palomar Observatory in California and the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre. According to Google, Google Sky is now available in 13 languages.

You can watch a Google Sky’s introduction video clip, as embedded in below.