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Tue, May. 6th, 2008, 03:43 pm
Your time waster for the day

[info]james_nicoll passed on the Solar System Visualizer, which is the best time sink I've seen in years. First, take a look at our own solar system, and click on the menu on the left for those planets with moons to see their orbital mechanics. Had enough of a case of head-explodey from realizing how many moons Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have that didn't show up in your high school textbooks? Hop on over to the "Extrasolar planets" directory to see a selection of one- to four-planet extrasolar systems, and realize that these recreations are probably going to be as dated in twenty years as solar system maps from 1988 are today. Man, I love living in the future.
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Tue, May. 6th, 2008 09:16 pm (UTC)
[info]trickykitty

I think it might be just me, but a part of me wants to add Pong-like physics to the site and just sit back and wait to see two of Jupiter's moons collide.
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Tue, May. 6th, 2008 10:02 pm (UTC)
[info]txtriffidranch

I've seen sites like that, but I'm enjoying this one just because I now have a fairly good idea of the orbits of many of the moons. I find it interesting, for instance, as to the monster gap between, say, Triton and the rest of Neptune's moons, or the gap produced by the Galilean moons of Jupiter. It's one thing to read about it, but it's another to see it.
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Tue, May. 6th, 2008 10:49 pm (UTC)
[info]hank

This is probably a sign of our upbringing, but when you use the zoom button to go in on the inner planets, does it look to you just like travelling in "Star Trek"?
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Tue, May. 6th, 2008 11:18 pm (UTC)
[info]thesaucernews

Man, Earth is teh lame.
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Wed, May. 7th, 2008 03:16 am (UTC)
[info]i_b_d_e_man

Ok...that is bloody awesome!

When the heck did Pluto get two more moons?

And, how come there's never any news announcements regarding all the extra solar planets?!
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Wed, May. 7th, 2008 02:04 pm (UTC)
[info]sclerotic_rings

Pluto's had two more moons for about two years, and the announcements about the extrasolar planets get made all of the time. Unfortunately, they don't hit the general news because of editors who are too busy focusing on Paris Hilton's latest STD.
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Fri, May. 9th, 2008 04:52 am (UTC)
[info]graywyvern: al the extra planets

usefully tabulated at exoplanets dot org

although solstation dot com has animations & good info
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Wed, May. 7th, 2008 02:40 pm (UTC)
[info]bluewolfcv

Very very cool. Go Doug!
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