Google has updated its popular Google Earth product with a new feature that’s sure to get some people’s attention: star charts. Oh yes… Google Earth is no longer restricted to “Earth” - it’s cosmic. The new feature, called Sky, gives users of the product the same freedom to explore the heavens as they’ve enjoyed on Earth.

Google Sky already includes over 100 million individual stars and 200 million galaxies that users can “fly” to. Just like Google Earth, Google Sky includes customizable layers that highlight certain heavenly bodies and provide additional information to users.

This is one of those Google programs that’s just “cool”. It’s an excellent educational tool. But I bet Google’s counting on more downloads for the cool factor than anything else. Why? Because getting one Google product in front of users opens the doors of possibility. If they like playing with Google Sky, maybe they’ll like Google Desktop?

- Matt