Space Jam

Posted by Lior Ron, Product Manager

Code Jam is one of our most famous traditions. Programmers compete to hack and solve complex programming challenges in a very short time, and the winners are awarded fame, cash prizes and the opportunity to intern at Google.

Diego Gavinowich from Buenos Aires was a finalist in our Latin America Code Jam, and joined us for a winter internship three months ago (missing summer break in Argentina!). Since he loves astronomy and web hacking, we gave Diego a new Code Jam challenge: code a web version of Google Sky by the end of his time with us.

Well, he did it... with the help of other engineers jamming along on their 20% time. We're very pleased to tell you that Google Sky is now available on the web at sky.google.com. You can search for planets, listen to Earth & Sky podcasts, watch some beautiful Hubble telescope images, or explore historical maps of the sky from the comfort of your browser.

Sky in Google Earth, which launched last August, was originally available to our 350 million Google Earth users. This release brings the universe to every browser and makes Sky accessible to just about anyone with an Internet connection — from school children to professional astronomers — in 26 different languages.

To learn more about Google Sky web edition, watch this short video, and read the full story on the Google Lat Long blog.

We'll miss you, Diego!