PlanetWerks

Widgets » PlanetWerks

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by GreyWyvern

V2.4 May 30, 2008 3:37:30 PM

An interactive, educational and accurate Solar System simulation

A planetarium on your Desktop!

PlanetWerks is a three-dimensional widget-sized tour through our solar system. A sophisticated control system brings you amazing views and fun facts! Movement in PlanetWerks 2 incorporates accurate 2-body motion; so objects orbit the sun the same way they do in the actual solar system!

Also included, switch to a linear scale model to see just how vast the solar system really is. Four levels of precision rotation and zoom control to help get those great views! Then click planets and satellites for fun facts and statistics!

2.3 Changelog:

Added dwarf planets Haumea and Makemake

2.2 Changelog:

Added orbital path trails; toggle with [T]
Corrected an orientation calculation error
Fixed a bug affecting retrograde orbits under linear speed
Many performance and memory tweaks
Added [Backspace] to mimic [Delete] for Macbook keyboards
Added [Shift]+[Delete] to mimic [Insert] for Mac keyboards
Transparency fixes for *NIX desktops

Comments 53 posts

previous 21 - 40 of 53 next

I like it

By reisenderpro, # May 11, 2007 0:39:17 AM

This is great... Fact like surface temp, earth years it take for one 'x' (ie - jupiter) year, etc would all be nifty little additions.

Full screen mode and 3D acceleration might be a bit much to ask, yes?

By Deth On A Stik, # Mar 28, 2007 10:55:44 AM

This is powerfull!!
wonders if it could develop into something really serious like celestia.

By chesss, # Feb 21, 2007 10:32:11 PM

Totally Cool! Keep it up man!

By salem407i, # Jan 23, 2007 0:23:52 AM

@merrickal:
Pluto is still in this simulation, but it is still the same size as before. IOW, very very small

It is also on a 17 degree incline wrt the other planets as it is in the actual solar system. Make sure you're looking all around outside the orbit of Neptune and you'll find it eventually

You may find it easier to halt the motion of the planets (C) and use the Q, W, A, S, Z, X, J and K keys to move around the system manually.

I thought about putting in a mechanism to move the planets automatically to focus in on each of them, but a) it would be a lot of work, and b) I think it's more fun to find them yourself

By GreyWyvern, # Jan 16, 2007 4:43:59 AM

Wow! Really cool, love the facts popping up.. but hey does it actually show pluto anymore or is my screen size too small for it?

By merrickal, # Jan 13, 2007 3:22:58 PM

@Erestor:
There is already a Russian version which you can find here: http://widgets.opera.com/widget/5683

I am dependent on others for translations as my first language is English :| If you know of anyone who would be interested...

At the end of every factbox chain there is a link to Wikipedia, I don't think there is enough room to put a link on each one.

Anti-clockwise?

That depends on which way you think is up!

But PlanetWerks is a fully rotatable simulation, so you can also hold down Z or X until the planets are orbitting in the direction you prefer

Thanks for your comment!

By GreyWyvern, # Jan 12, 2007 1:39:06 PM

Nice! Space is one of my fields of interest, so this widget is among my favourites. Please make it multi-linqual. Provide a link for further reading in every factbox. Don't the planets orbit anti-clockwise around the sun?

By Erestor, # Jan 11, 2007 8:56:42 PM

You should get an academy award, this should be published for schools!
Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

By warpkasper, # Dec 22, 2006 7:40:36 AM

What about adding Planet X? It's supposed to be a red planet on a very long orbit that the Sumerians saw in ancient Mesopotamia.

By darklord48, # Dec 1, 2006 8:01:06 PM

Amazing..simply amazing. Great widget.

By Dragn, # Oct 30, 2006 1:52:27 AM

It's great! Very nice and useful widget!
I've just translated it into Russian, so may I publish this translated version here? All copyrights are saved and license is not changed.

By ry75, # Oct 28, 2006 10:05:26 PM

Shame that - would have been über-cool

By PaulOnPC, # Sep 23, 2006 4:34:29 PM

Many, many thanks for all the comments everyone!

@PaulOnPC:
I probably could, but it would almost certainly slow the animation of the widget itself to a crawl

By GreyWyvern, # Sep 20, 2006 3:55:56 PM

Beautiful widget - absolutely brilliant !!

Request: Could you make the sun have animated solar flares ??

My hat goes off to you matey

By PaulOnPC, # Sep 17, 2006 6:35:18 AM

absu-bloody-lutely-brilliant !

Grretings from *digitaldouchebag*

By digitaldouchebag, # Sep 15, 2006 1:23:00 PM

@chrisgl:
The only thing I changed was the text in the factboxes which previously referred to Pluto as a planet. Pluto is still in this simulation

I may add Ceres in an upcoming version, but probably not "Xena" unless I make significant changes to the orbiting equations. Right now there is no accounting for eccentricity and "Xena" has a highly elliptical orbit.

@Nishant Sawant:
No worries!

By GreyWyvern, # Sep 7, 2006 8:36:26 PM

Keep pluto in it

By Nishant Sawant, # Sep 7, 2006 3:45:06 PM

Ooo adjust my favourite planet, would you. Grrrr
<grin>

I gather it's not set in stone yet - Planet Wars!
What about a config check box to allow us to follow the little planet's fortunes?

chris :-)

By chrisgl, # Sep 2, 2006 10:40:43 AM