NASA World Wind 1.2

Created by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, World Wind is a program based on Java and used for exploring the globe (together with Venus, Mars and the Moon) by means of satellite images gathered by NASA satellites.

World Wind downloads satellite images of the entire Earth from NASA servers and enables the user to watch them. In terms of image quality, these pictures resemble the Blue Marble iconic image. At the same time this is a multiplatform application compatible with computers with Windows, Linux or Mac OS X operating systems. For those who have problems starting the Java version, the program based on the .NET environment is now available. 

What does the program actually look like? Well, in short, it looks stunning. Although the photo display speed depends on the connection quality, high definition of images and the number of visible details are really impressive and unique. The program is definitely worth trying out.

What about its interface? It has been designed in order to enable the user to be able to quickly and freely move around the globe and, just like Google Earth, is mainly based on mouse navigation, although it also involves a range of keyboard shortcuts facilitating navigation.