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Microsoft plans to launch its WorldWide Telescope project by the end of this month. WorldWide Telescope is a free tool that allows users to explore images of the sky at night.

“This is taking data that’s very complex, gathered over many years from many telescopes, and making it accessible,” said Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft.

WorldWide Telescope is created with Microsoft’s high-performance Visual Experience Engine that enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky. Moreover, the online service will include terabytes of images, data and stories assembled via various sources.

WorldWide Telescope will be similar to the Google’s Sky service, which was launched last year.

The Redmond-based company is said to be dedicating the WorldWide Telescope project to its researcher Jim Gray, who went missing at sea last year. Much of the technology in WorldWide Telescope is built on Gray’s original SkyServer project, said Microsoft.