Touring the galaxy with Celestia
STAR JOURNEY
Space, the final frontier, is a bit too expensive for a short vacation. If a trip to the moon is beyond your budget, why not try Celestia, a free program that brings the galaxy to the comfort of your home.
Hover above the ISS space station watching the earth slowly rotate below you. Be an eye witness as the Cassini probe passes the rings of Sat urn. Visit the outer limits of the galaxy, or pay a visit to Klingon territory (Figure 1). Celestia will take you there! Touring Tool Chris Laurel developed Celestia [1] in 2001 to traverse and explore the galaxy in 3D. In the years that followed, count less volunteers on the Internet have helped to enhance Celestia. Now, Celes tia is one of those rare examples of a program that is not only valuable from an educational point of view, but is entertaining at the same time. Celestia really is fun, and it just keeps on grow ing. The standard package comes with a huge collection of space objects, and you can add additional probes, remote solar systems, and alien space ships, simply by downloading add-ons off the web. Among other things, the complete space fleet from 2001 -- A Space Odyssey is available as a download. Advanced users can design their own planets and fictional solar systems. You can use Celestia for classroom work or work out routes through the galaxy that you can then replay in demo mode.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
News
-
KDE Developers Are Working on a TV Interface
The developers of the KDE desktop are hard at work to create a TV interface.
-
System76 Is Developing a New Keyboard
The company behind the incredibly powerful Thelio desktop is developing a new keyboard.
-
Zorin OS 15.2 Now Available
The latest release of Zorin OS offers numerous improvements.
-
Firefox to Get an Additional Sandbox Layer
Starting with Firefox 74, the open source web browser will include the new RLBox security feature.
-
Microsoft Defender ATP is Coming to Linux
Microsoft is ramping up its efforts to fight attackers across all platforms.
-
South Korean Government Considers Move to Linux Desktop
Seoul Mulls Migrating from Windows to Linux.
-
OpenSSH Now Supports FIDO/U2F Security Keys
SSH users can now add FIDO/U2F to the list of supported multi-factor authentication tools.
-
System76 Launches New AMD Threadripper Machine
System76 has added an AMD Threadripper option for their Thelio desktop lineup.
-
LibreOffice 6.4 Released
The unofficial office suite for the Linux platform has performance in mind for users.
-
Official Evernote Client Coming to Linux
The most widely-used note-taking app is coming to Linux.