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Roy Gould: Less than a year from now,

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the world is going to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy,

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which marks the 400th anniversary

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of Galileo's first glimpse of the night sky through a telescope.

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In a few months, the world is also going to celebrate

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the launch of a new invention from Microsoft Research,

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which I think is going to have as profound an impact

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on the way we view the universe as Galileo did four centuries ago.

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It's called the WorldWide Telescope,

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and I want to thank TED and Microsoft for allowing me to bring it to your attention.

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And I want to urge you, when you get a chance,

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to give it a closer look at the TED Lab downstairs.

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The WorldWide Telescope takes the best images

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from the world's greatest telescopes on Earth and in space,

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and has woven them seamlessly

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to produce a holistic view of the universe.

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It's going to change the way we do astronomy,

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it's going to change the way we teach astronomy

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and I think most importantly

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it's going to change the way we see ourselves in the universe.

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If we were having this TED meeting in our grandparents' day,

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that might not be so big a claim.

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In 1920, for example, you weren't allowed to drink;

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if you were a woman, you weren't allowed to vote;

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and if you looked up at the stars and the Milky Way on a summer night,

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what you saw was thought to be the entire universe.

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In fact, the head of Harvard's observatory back then

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gave a great debate in which he argued

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that the Milky Way Galaxy was the entire universe.

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Harvard was wrong, big time. (Laughter)

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Of course, we know today that galaxies extend far beyond our own galaxy.

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We can see all the way out to the edge of the observable universe,

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all the way back in time,

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almost to the moment of the Big Bang itself.

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We can see across the entire spectrum of light,

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revealing worlds that had previously been invisible.

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We see these magnificent star nurseries,

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where nature has somehow arranged for just the right numbers

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and just the right sizes of stars to be born for life to arise.

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We see alien worlds, we see alien solar systems --

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300 now, and still counting --

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and they're not like us.

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We see black holes at the heart of our galaxy,

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in the Milky Way, and elsewhere in the universe,

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where time itself seems to stand still.

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But until now, our view of the universe has been disconnected and fragmented,

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and I think that many of the marvelous stories that nature has to tell us

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have fallen through the cracks. And that's changing.

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I want to just briefly mention three reasons

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why my colleagues and I, in astronomy and in education,

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are so excited about the WorldWide Telescope

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and why we think it's truly transformative.

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First, it enables you to experience the universe:

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the WorldWide Telescope, for me, is a kind of magic carpet

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that lets you navigate through the universe where you want to go.

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Second: you can tour the universe with astronomers as your guides.

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And I'm not talking here about just experts who are telling you what you're seeing,

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but really people who are passionate about the various nooks and crannies of the universe,

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who can share their enthusiasm

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and can make the universe a welcoming place.

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And third, you can create your own tours --

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you can share them with friends, you can create them with friends --

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and that's the part that I think I'm most excited about

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because I think that at heart, we are all storytellers.

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And in telling stories,

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each of us is going to understand the universe in our own way.

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We're going to have a personal universe.

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I think we're going to see a community of storytellers evolve and emerge.

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Before I introduce the person responsible for the WorldWide Telescope,

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I just want to leave you with this brief thought:

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when I ask people, "How does the night sky make you feel?"

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they often say, "Oh, tiny. I feel tiny and insignificant."

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Well, our gaze fills the universe.

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And thanks to the creators of the WorldWide Telescope,

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we can now start to have a dialogue with the universe.

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I think the WorldWide Telescope will convince you

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that we may be tiny, but we are truly, wonderfully significant.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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I can't tell you what a privilege it is

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to introduce Curtis Wong from Microsoft. (Applause)

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Curtis Wong: Thank you, Roy.

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So, what you're seeing here is a wonderful presentation,

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but it's one of the tours.

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And actually this tour is one that was created earlier.

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And the tours are all totally interactive,

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so that if I were to go somewhere ...

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you may be watching a tour and you can pause anywhere along the way,

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pull up other information --

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there are lots of Web and information sources

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about places you might want to go --

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you can zoom in, you can pull back out.

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The whole resources are there available for you.

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So, Microsoft -- this is a project that -- WorldWide Telescope is dedicated to Jim Gray,

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who's our colleague, and a lot of his work that he did

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is really what makes this project possible.

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It's a labor of love for us and our small team,

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and we really hope it will inspire kids to explore and learn about the universe.

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So basically, kids of all ages, like us.

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And so WorldWide Telescope will be available this spring.

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It'll be a free download -- thank you, Craig Mundie --

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and it'll be available at the website WorldWideTelescope.org,

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which is something new.

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And so, what you've seen today

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is less than a fraction of one percent of what is in here,

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and in the TED Lab, we have a tour

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that was created by a six-year-old named Benjamin

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that will knock your socks off. (Laughter)

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So we'll see you there. Thank you.

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(Applause)