Google has announced details of a partnership with America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that will see the search engine giant provide imagery and information from the space agency.

Under the deal, internet users could be set to view three-dimensional maps of the moon and track the International Space Station.

Chief executive Eric Schmidt said: "Partnering with Nasa made perfect sense for Google, as it has a wealth of technical expertise and data that will be of great use to Google as we look to tackle many computing issues on behalf of our users."

The two companies are also set to collaborate on a number of projects in the future, including a study into how humans interact with computers.

Earlier this week, a study by Nielsen//Net Ratings claimed Google was the most used search engine in the United States.

During November, over three billion searches were carried out using Google, accounting for 49.5 per cent of the market.