LONDON, UK: After earth and sky, now it's time for Google to touch the stars!

According to the latest reports, the search giant is turning a virtual telescope towards the stars, of course, in the form of a mobile application.

The new mobile phone application called 'Star Droid' can help amateur astronomers identify stars and planets, The Telegraph newspaper reported on Sunday.

The search engine software will use GPS technology to compare the position of the phone user with existing maps of space, attaching name tags to the stars and planets that can be seen through the phone's viewfinder, it said.

This is not for the first time that Google is turning towards the sky. It already offers a Google Sky facility that gives online browsers a map of space similar to its Google Earth and Google Street View services.

However, Google declined to make any comment on Star Droid. “There are lots of great applications being produced all the time, so you will just have to watch this space," the newspaper quoted a Google spokeswoman as saying.

Google's Street View, which provides a 360-degree view of roads in Britain's biggest cities, had faced a lot of criticism recently, as it was invading into the privacy of people.