Google's NASA Orbit

Back in January we reported that Google had struck a partnership with scientists building a huge sky-scanning telescope, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), on a mountaintop in Chile, with hopes of helping the public with a "people's telescope" to provide access to real-time digital footage of asteroids, supernovas and distant galaxies.

Officials say the telescope will open "a movie-like window" on nearby asteroids and far-off exploding stars, and help explore the mysterious "dark energy" believed to fuel the universe's expansion.

It is assumed the company that already offers detailed online maps of the Earth, the Moon and will help analyze massive amounts of data - up to 30 terabytes a night - generated by the telescope.

Scheduled to begin operations in 2013, the 8.4-meter telescope will survey the entire visible sky every week investigating Dark Matter and Dark Energy and opening a movie-like window on fast-changing objects such as exploding supernovae, near-Earth asteroids and distant Kuiper Belt Objects beyond Pluto.

Late last year, Google and NASA announced a partnership that would include (eventually) making maps of the Moon and available through something like Google Earth.

Google is taking searching to a whole new level by joining the hunt for killer asteroids. The internet giant is to help operate a new giant telescope that will scan the heavens for space rocks that threaten potential disaster.

It will be fitted with a three billion pixel digital camera capable of detecting so-called near-Earth asteroids as small as 100 yards wide.

The telescope, which can view a chunk of sky seven times the width of the Full Moon at any one time, is also expected to spot exploding supernovae and new dwarf planets, or Kuiper Belt objects, beyond Pluto. It will also check billions of galaxies for the effects of those invisible forces dark matter and dark energy.

Google's relationship with NASA began two years ago, when the partners signed a memorandum of understanding that opened the door to cooperation on a broad front. Last year, they formalized their alliance under the Space Act, a federal law that allows the agency to share personnel, facilities and equipment with private companies.

The partnership joins the talents of the most popular search engine on the Web, who knows how to solve complex problems with the space agency that put men on the moon and rovers on Mars. By combining brain power, the partners hope to tackle supercomputing, biotechnology and nanotechnology.

Results of the partnership include a recent update of the Google Moon lunar mapping service with higher-resolution photos. NASA has also added some bells and whistles to Google Earth -highlighting dozens of photos by astronauts of unusual places across the globe, such as a dust storm over the Persian Gulf. NASA has played a smaller role in Google Sky, a service that allows users to scan photos of the heavens and with Google Mars, which features images of the Martian landscape.

Posted by Casey Kazan.

Links:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/342847_nasagoogle10.html
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2005/05_50AR.html