11 May 2009
Mobile phone users will soon be able to study the night sky when Google launches its Star Droid application.
Using GPS technology, people will be able to look at maps of space and add tags to the names of stars and planets.
Carolin Crawford, from the University of Cambridge's institute of astronomy, told the Times: "This innovation sounds like it could be really useful to help people learn what they are looking at."
She added that it will be interesting to see how much the mobile phone technology will be able to pick up.
Google will make the software available for mobile phone users to download from the internet, it is reported, following on from the success of Google Street View and Google Earth.
Google Street View came under fire when it was launched earlier this year, with many saying it demonstrated a breach of privacy.