Best Solar System Software?

[ulyssescpt]

I hope I'm not annoying anyone with this post.<br /><br />I just saw the Discovery program on the New Horizon project: sending a probe to photograph Pluto.<br /><br />I'm looking for the best software I can buy that will let me explore our solar system. The planets and moons would have texture that you can zoom into and see mountains, other geological features, etc. But the software has to be extremely up to date... And have the feauture to upload new data. <br /><br />I'm looking for a software package that will show me the rotation, not just of the well known planets, but also the newest bodies; the dwarf planets, and 10th planet, Pluto, Charon the moon, Xena(Aries.)<br /><br />I'm hoping to find a software package that will help me explore our active solar system almost as flexible as if I had a 3-d model of the solar system in front of me.<br /><br />I would appreciate anyone suggestions of what software to get. There are allot of software out there, but most are only still pictures or dots that show the movements of the planet. I'm sure everyone who is a member of this site, know more about astronomy then I and would have found the software package I'm talking about.<br /><br />Thanks.<br /><br />Alex<br />

 

[rfoshaug]

Welcome to SpaceDotCom!<br /><br />The best piece of software I can think of in this respect is Celestia, a 3d software planetarium. Check it out and see if it is what you're looking for.<br /><br />Best of all - it is totally free!!! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Celestia homepage<br /><br />Wikipedia article<br /><br />Celestia Motherlode - collection of addon textures and solar system objects. Some Kuiper belt objects but not very many.<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff9900">----------------------------------</font></p><p><font color="#ff9900">My minds have many opinions</font></p> </div>

 

[deapfreeze]

wikipedia is good and I use a free software called stellarium it is also pretty good. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#0000ff"><em>William ( deapfreeze ) Hooper</em></font></p><p><font size="1">http://deapfreeze-amateur-astronomy.tk/</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[weeman]

I have celestia, it's pretty cool, although it might not be quite as detailed as what you're looking for. Of course, I just have the basic program, the addons might give you many more features. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Techies: We do it in the dark. </font></strong></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>"Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.</strong><strong>" -Albert Einstein </strong></font></p> </div>

 

[bdewoody]

Celestia shows the major objects in the solar system in their relative positions for any particular date you choose. It defaults to the current time when opening. But mainly it's freeware which makes it the best for your money by a long shot. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">Bob DeWoody</font></em> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

I quite like Starry Night. Main drawback is that unlike Celestia, it isn't free. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> It will let you zoom around objects, though it's not like Google Earth -- you can't fly around canyons on Mars, for instance. One caveat to that sort of thing is that apart from Mars, the available data isn't really good enough yet.<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>I'm looking for a software package that will show me the rotation, not just of the well known planets, but also the newest bodies; the dwarf planets, and 10th planet, Pluto, Charon the moon, Xena(Aries.) <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Pretty much any planetarium software worth its salt (Celestia, Starry Night, Redshift) will do that. But advised, though, that not all objects have that much data, especially the small ones recently discovered. For instance, Eris (the official name of "Xena") is estimated to have an eight-hour rotation period, but this has yet to be confirmed. Still, if you go for software that has a built-in update function, you should be able to keep abreast of scientific discoveries in this area. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>