NASA and Microsoft Bring You the Stars

There is no doubting that Microsoft has some of the most innovative visualization tools available for looking at large and multiple images (Photosynth, DeepZoom, World Wide Telescope, HD View to name several.) NASA, on the other hand, has no shortage of great imagery and datasets. And thus a beautiful partnership was born. Building on the relationship that brought us several previous Photosynth projects, this joint agreement will first begin with high-resolution data from Mars (sample picture on left) and our Moon, which you will be able to explore through WorldWide Telescope. The imagery from Mars will be coming from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which was launched in 2005 and has since collected more data from Mars than all other Mars missions combined.

This joint agreement covers more than 100 terabyte of data, which is roughly the equivalent of 20,000 DVD's. Viewing this imagery will be possible later this year (keep tuned, we'll let you know) and will also include images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that will be launched in May.