Google Earth for mobile has gone even further The latest update to the Earth-traveling app finally allows users to step outside of Earth and explore outer space

The latest version of the mobile version of Google Earth zooms out to 30,000 miles above Earth to see our planet in a perfectly spherical form You can also see the stars surrounding our planet, created by the European Southern Observatory

As you rotate the Earth with your finger, the stars in the background of our faraway solar system adjust to accurately reflect their placement in space; while fiddling with the Google Earth iOS app on my iPhone, I spotted the pearly clouds of the Milky Way in the palm of my hand

This extraterrestrial feature used to work with the desktop and professional versions of Google Earth, but now mobile users can view the universe together In a blog post, Google credits the improved performance of smartphones and tablets for the improved quality of the Google Earth app

"Before we added images of stars, the sky around the "big blue marble" view in Google Earth was simply black and not very realistic," Google wrote

The desktop version of Google Earth allows users to explore even more advanced scenes from space I've never been a big fan of this app, but an interactive map of the solar system may change that Unless commercialized space travel happens first