Explore the Exoplanets

October 19, 2013 7:48 AM

Explore the Exoplanets courtesy of Nasa. ""Eyes on Exoplanets" provides a scientifically accurate, fully rendered 3D universe of the 900-plus "Exoplanet" discoveries." [via NASA/Kepler, via NASAPlanetQuest]. Kepler/Exoplanets previously on Mefi 1 2 3 4 and (from 2002) 5.
posted by marienbad (10 comments total)

Just a note that it doesn't work on iPad (nor other mobile devices, I assume, Probably due to WebGL content? That's what was really missing from iOS 7, at least for me...)
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 9:05 AM on October 19, 2013

Nor does it work on a new iMac.
posted by Mcable at 9:45 AM on October 19, 2013

Chrome OS is a no-go...
posted by jim in austin at 9:46 AM on October 19, 2013

Working great on this Windows 7 Thinkpad.
posted by doctornemo at 11:17 AM on October 19, 2013

It appears that it wants to download a browser plug-in directly from NASA. That would be why it only works on (some versions of) Windows and MacOS. In other words it's not a web page at all, more of a normal application that happens to be wrapped in a web page for some reason.
posted by sfenders at 11:30 AM on October 19, 2013

Definitely a desktop download.

Lots of fun so far. I enjoy zooming into interstellar space, pulling up details about a star's likely (or observed) planets and habitable zone.
posted by doctornemo at 11:40 AM on October 19, 2013

this is awesome, thanks marienbad
posted by dust of the stars at 12:50 PM on October 19, 2013

Works fine on my new iMac. It's really cool!
posted by brundlefly at 8:53 PM on October 19, 2013

There's a new book out about the search for these far away places, Five Billion Years of Solitude. I just heard this interview with the author that's a good introduction to how they do this super technical and tricky research on The Economist's Culture Podcast (only The Economist would classify exoplanetology as "culture").
posted by bluefly at 8:01 PM on October 20, 2013

I had one of those "omg I live in the future" moments, sitting in an armchair with my first-grader, zooming around a 3D atlas of known planets in the billion-cubic-light-year volume around our sun. "Oh look, this one is a class-G yellow star like ours and it has a planet in the habitable zone! Oh, but it's a gas giant slightly larger than Jupiter..." It's hard to believe that, in my lifetime, extrasolar planets have gone from pure science fiction to a burgeoning research field.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:10 PM on October 20, 2013 [1 favorite]