If you haven’t had a look yet, you should check out the TED talk on Microsoft’s new Worldwide Telescope  (WWT) due to be released this spring and made available as a free download. It combines feeds from telescopes on earth and in space and weaves them together to produce a view of the universe. The video showed in the talk looks amazing.

It made Robert Scoble cry, but in the best possible way! :) I love how he has described it: “It’s not often that I see software that really changes my world. It’s even rarer that I see software that I know will change the world my sons live in.”!

The presenter Roy Gould describes it as a “magic carpet to allow you to navigate throughout the universe”, something that allows you to travel to where you want to go to with astronomers as your guides. You’ll even be able to create your own tours of the universe to share with your friends.

The WWT is a collaboration between Microsoft's Next Media Research Team (Principal Researcher and group manager Curtis Wong, Principal Research Software Design Engineer Jonathan Fay and Jina Suh Research Intern), Alex Szalay at Johns Hopkins University, Alyssa Goodman at Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics, and Frank Summers at Space Telescope Science Institute.

By the way, if you haven't yet visited the TED site - you should definitely check it out generally - it's a site dedicated to showcasing ideas worth spreading "from the world's greatest thinkers and doers". There are over 200 up there at the moment, and they publish a new one every week. Everything I have seen there ranges from incredibly interesting to truly inspirational and they are all great ideas to be shared!

Update: Robert commented with a link to his new Scobleizer TV site - he's got a fantastic  interview with Curtis Wong the Principal Researcher in Microsoft Researcher responsible for the WWT. If you are impressed with the TED talk - this demo will just amaze you!!