Google Sky gets browser app

Google has unveiled a browser version of its Google Sky application for people who don't want to download the Google Earth software.

The browser version allows users to zoom in and out and pan around the celestial bodies, search for planets and galaxies and view the sky through infrared, x-ray, ultraviolet, and microwave views.

There are also galleries of some of the best shots from the Hubble telescope and others. Users can also listen to podcasts and look at historical maps of the sky.

The backstory on this new app is that it was done by staff engineers and Diego Gavinowich, from Buenos Aires, who was a finalist in Google's Latin America Code Jam and spent the past three months in an internship at the company, according to the official Google Blog.

Several weeks ago Microsoft demonstrated its own virtual telescope software called Worldwide Telescope that will be available for free this spring.

Last month, Google was sued by a former contractor who alleges that the idea for Google Sky was his.

Click here for the best photos from Google Sky or here for the best photos from Google Earth.

Original article: Viewing Google Sky through a browser from CNET News.com