Microsoft wants you to explore places you've never been before. Moving along the lines of Google Earth, Microsoft yesterday announced the public beta launch of its WorldWide Telescope.

The telescope will allow people explore the universe on their computers through imagery from ground- and space-based observatories.

The application is a blend of software and Web 2.0 services; created using the Microsoft Visual Experience Engine, which allows panning and zooming around the night sky with rich image environments, according to the company.

WorldWide Telescope stitches together terabytes of high-resolution images of celestial bodies and displays them in a way that relates to their actual position in the sky. People can freely browse through the solar system, galaxy, and beyond, or take a guided tour of the sky hosted by astronomers and educators at major universities and planetariums.

Users can also choose which telescope they want to look through, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Spitzer Space Telescope, or others. They can view the locations of planets in the night sky -- in the past, present, or future. They can view the universe through different wavelengths of light to reveal hidden structures in other parts of the galaxy.

The WorldWide Telescope application has been developed by Microsoft's Research division by forming close ties with academia and the scientific community. The company claims that Microsoft Senior Researcher Jim Gray began work on the project years ago. As a tribute to the man, Worldwide Telescope is being released as a free service to astronomers and educationists, Microsoft said.