databases of sky images. WWT was announced at the TED Conference in Monterey, California in February 27, 2008 and officially launched in May 12, 2008. As of 2016, WWT has been downloaded by at least 10 million active users."

As of February 2012 the earth science applications of WWT are showcased and supported by the Layerscape community collaboration website, also created by Microsoft Research. Since WWT has gone to Open Source Layerscape communities