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According to Microsoft, the WorldWide Telescope includes around 12 terabytes of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center and Spitzer Space Telescope.

Using the mouse to pan around, or the mousewheel to zoom in and out, the software allows users to roam freely around the universe, or take a guided tour narrated by everyone from children to astrophysicists, talking about a range of interstellar phenomenon.

There are also more complex features allowing

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users to view the locations of planets in the past, present or future. There's also options to view the universe through different wavelengths of light.

"Users can see the X-ray view of the sky, zoom into bright radiation clouds, and then cross-fade into the visible light view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from a thousand years ago," says Roy Gould, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

As a rival to Google Sky, Microsoft WorlWide Telescope certainly feels slicker than its counterpart boasting richer graphics and animations, though it lacks the ability for users to quickly add layers of information as they can with Google Sky.

As with Google Sky, Microsoft will be releasing the software for free and says it hopes to see WorldWide Telescope become more widely used as an educational tool to spark the interest of children in astronomy.

The beta version of the software can be downloaded here.