| 3D Solar System Glow Sculpture SetClick for details
There's a sense from the toy's name--3-D Solar System Glow Sculpture Set--that twirling planets will revolve around your child's room, humming with the music of the spheres. Really, this fine starter set consists of half-spheres that can be tacked to the wall. They do glow in the dark, after a brief exposure to a light bulb, and are differentiated enough with color to help a child identify the nine planets plus the sun. The back of the kit includes a handy planet chart and a brief disclaimer about the actual scale, and distances apart, of the real heavenly bodies
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3Star allows the user to interactively rotate over 300 stars in real time 3D. It's free, and compatible with Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Other features include detailed information about stars, and the ability to save settings on any screen. Based on the Gliese 3.0 catalogue.
| 42" Solar MobileClick for details
The budding, serious astronomer will love this solar-system mobile that features actual NASA photographs. The planets, made of thick, high-quality card stock, are double-sided, highlighting each orb's individual colors and features. The accompanying 16-page guidebook is a great primer and includes some nice passages like, "Perhaps you will someday rocket from Earth to land on the moons, race the comets, or play tag with Saturn's rings." It's enough to make any mobile watcher and potential astronaut starry-eyed
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The Near Earth Asteroid rendezvous (NEAR), will be the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid, answering fundamental questions about the origin and composition of asteroids, comets, and our solar system. Since its 1997 encounter with the asteroid Mathilde, NEAR has begun to reveal the secrets of Eros. Share in these discoveries via the Internet.
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
17 June 1999
Access a unique unmanned telescope situated high in the Yorkshire Dales. The telescope will photograph objects in the night sky at your request and e-mail the images back at a later date. The layout is basic but guides you clearly through the various stages of registration and submitting your first request. Be prepared to wait though, there's a queuing system and the telescope will only come out when the sky is clear.
Launched in October 1997, Cassini, a two-story-tall robotic spacecraft is on its way to explore the exciting realm of Saturn, the most distant planet that can easily be seen by the unaided human eye. This site will keep you up to date with how it's getting along.
Stardust is the first space mission that will fly close to a comet and, for the first time ever, bring cometary material back to Earth for analysis. Follow the progress of stardust on this site as it heads for its historic encounter with the comet Wild 2 in 2004.
| Design Your Own Solar System KitClick for details
This kit contains everything you need to create your own solar system!
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Members of San Francisco State University have discovered most of the planets known so far outside the solar system. This technical site lists them and supplies references to other web sites, including newspaper articles on the subject.
Tuesday, November 16, 1999
Astronomers have observed the shadow caused by a planet passing in front of a distant star. It is the first visual proof that planets exist outside our Solar System. No image of the planet was formed -- the star is too far away for that -- but the dimming of the star at the exact time predicted by other observations of the planet confirmed its existence.
Library run by ZD Net
| Galaxy GuideClick for details
Measuring just under 7 inches across, this compact, rounded learning toy is an excellent beginner's guide to navigating around the night sky. Remove one of the 12 seasonal star maps from its storage pocket, place it in the Galaxy Guide's central bowl, adjust the map to point to the north on the inset compass, and adjust the red light underneath for your night vision. You're then ready to start mapping all of the major constellations and learning not only their names but also how to recognize the planets of our solar system. As an added bonus, there's a night guide to the full moon for those nights when lunar light makes star-watching a bit tricky. An included handbook also contains other helpful hints to star-gazing and a Planetary Finder Chart that will help you find our partners in the solar system through the end of 2001. Please note that the Galaxy Guide's star maps are designed for use in the northern hemisphere
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March 1998
Early Scientific American article (1998) discussing how planets round other stars are discovered and their implications.
Your chance to change the solar system. This Java game lets you play with the position of planets, make the sun twice as large or add a comet or two. You'll find there's something quite exhilarating about smashing a comet into the Sun!
Huygens is heading for Titan, Saturn's largest moon, aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Titan's atmosphere is thought to resemble that of a young Earth, so it could hold the secret to the origins of life. Keep watching while Huygens penetrates the moon's atmosphere and, during a brief descent, analyses the physical and chemical environment.
22 November, 1999
Tau Bootes was already known to have a world in orbit around it. In 1996, a team of American astronomers discovered a planet orbiting it every 3.3 days.
Measurements indicated that this planet had a mass of almost four times the mass of Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System. Spurred on by this discovery, the St Andrews team decided to look in detail at the spectrum of the star.
Hidden in the light from the star, they argued, must be a small amount of reflected light actually from the planet. Their problem was how to extract the planet's light from the starlight that was estimated to be tens of thousands of times brighter.
The clue was in knowing the orbit of the planet. With this knowledge, the astronomers were able to look at the spectrum of the star and extract that portion of the star's light that varied over the timescale of 3.3 days. This, they argued, must be the light from the planet.
Keep abreast of the latest exploits in NASA's first mission to the moon in 25 years. The mission, to explore the lunar environment, has been so successful that it's been extended to July 1999. This site contains all the latest results and images, so if you ever look up at night and wonder what the moon is really like, here's your chance to find out.
An Aeronautics and Space Resource for Educators
This site gives details of the latest discoveries of new planets and solar systems, and tells you where they are, and what they're like.
Your connection to the exploration of the solar system and the search for life in the universe
14 April 1999
A nearby star, Upsilon Andromedae, quite like our Sun, has 3 three huge, Jupiter-like planets.
A web site based on a BBC series, with useful links and information.
Thursday, April 15, 1999
Astronomers have discovered the first solar system other than our own. It has three planets orbiting a star that is 44 light years away.
Web site of BBC programme with same name
This Java applet represents the solar system, including the four major moons of Jupiter and our own, and a couple of comets. Other heavenly bodies will be added on request.
| The NASA Atlas of the Solar SystemClick for details
Ronald Greeley et al
December 1996
Luxurious images of the solar system.
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A site about astronomy, space, computing, amateur radio and satellites. Filled with lots of useful data, huge links; Monthly sky notes for Astronomers; places to download software. Need a software driver or orbital elements for satellites? - then look no further. The Glossary and Brightest Stars pages have been revised, and a new page on the Nearest Stars has been added.
National Geographic’s Virtual Solar System is your chance to discover the wonders of our solar system in a spectacular 3-D environment. Take a fly-by tour of the sun and each planet in its orbit, observe close-up views of the planets, extraterrestrial weather patterns, and more. Unfortunately, to fully experience this site you will need Viscape SVR - approximate download time on a 33.6 K modem: 17 minutes.
Extending the exploration of the solar system beyond the neighbourhood of the outer planets, and possibly beyond, the Voyager probes are currently the furthest man made objects from earth. Take a visit here to find out where they are and what they're doing.
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