Starship Asterisk*

Dynamic Diagrams | dD Orrery

In our ongoing work to provide innovative visualization solutions for our clients, Dynamic Diagrams has continued to explore data-driven presentations and applications. As a proof of concept for using an XML data set to “power” a Flash application, we took advantage of a wonderful free data source provided by NASA. Using this collection, we assembled an Orrery that illustrates the positions of the planets and moons in our solar system and allows a user to view their alignment at any given date in the past or present.

Launch our Orrery by clicking here or on the image left.

This application has become wildly popular on Twitter so, as a result, we have developed a free screensaver for both Windows and MacOS:

Download the screen saver for MacOS or Windows.

That is a very fascinating and beautiful orrery.

To me, the unfamiliar relative sizes of the major objects in our solar system were fascinating all in themselves. The Earth is the same size as the Sun, which reflects the interest in our home planet of us Earthlings. Obviously our Moon has to look very big, too. The second biggest moon of our solar system (after our dear old Luna) appears to be Titan, which is seen to dwarf the Galilean moons of Jupiter. The moon system of Uranus seems to be the most elegant one in the solar system, where five major moons trace handsome circles at harmonious distances from the planet.

Most curiously, when I first looked at Jupiter, I thought that it didn't move. I could see that Saturn moved, but Jupiter seemed to be stationary. I think that was an illusion caused by the relatively fast-moving asteroid belt right next to Jupiter. Compared with the asteroids Jupiter seemed to move backwards, and its true forward motion combined with this relative backwards motion to create an illusion of motionlessness. At least to me.

Very fascinating! It's fun to follow the paths of the planets over time.

Ann

Switch from Copernican view to Tychonian and watch the apparent retrograde motion of the outer planets. The thing that confuses me is the size depicted for the planets and Moons. I haven't found an explanation for why they chose the sizes they did.