Collaborative Weblink Service
by George Pilling, District Library Media Specialist
Solar System
For Mrs. Williams' Class, Royal Oaks School
"It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small." -Neil Armstrong
NASA kids - http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/
Click on the picture of Saturn for information about space and the planets.
NASA Space Technology Instrument and Sensing Technology: Planetary Tour Guide http://ranier.oact.hq.nasa.gov/Sensors_page/Planets.html Be sure to click on the link to the Walt Whitman poem on contemplating the heavens ("On the Beach at Night, Alone") at the top of this site. Although this page is not very fancy and contains only text, it is a valuable gateway to links to NASA’s other Web sites on the planets. Categories include Planetary Tours (sites that provide current images of the planets), Planetary Data Sets (which archive data on the planets gathered by NASA and other organizations), Individual Planet Links, Comets/Asteroids, and Astronomy/Sky Guides (guides to viewing the skies).
NASA's Planetary Photojournal http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov The beautiful photographs of the planets shown here were all obtained during NASA missions. To view one of the more than 1,300 images, click on the planet of your choice, then choose from among the spacecrafts and instruments used to take the pictures. Or go to the More Query Methods page to specify a planetary feature, specific date, or other particulars to find what you're looking for in space.
The Nine Planets: A Multimedia Tour of the Planets http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/nineplanets.html This site provides a multimedia tour of the solar system that is accessible and understandable to the layman. Click on a planet to see all of its stats: size, orbit, brightness, composition, satellites and moons, and mysteries. Each page also has a list of links to more online information on the planet. Sound clips from Holst's The Planets complete the tour, and some pages have movies.
Planetary Fact Sheets http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planetfact.html Need the facts on a planet? Want to know more about its mass, gravity, orbit, distance from Earth, or atmospheric composition? Then this is the place for you. It has the lowdown on the nine planets, the sun, and selected comets. An enlargeable image of each planet accompanies its fact sheet.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
The Planetary Society http://www.planetary.org The Planetary Society, "the largest space interest group on Earth," is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization, founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman to encourage the exploration of the solar system and the search for extraterrestrial life. The site has pages of images of the planets, news of planetary events going on around the world, a great list of links, and information on how to become a member of the society and receive updates of planetary discoveries. Also, The Planetary Society gives recommendations on related books.
Solar System Live http://www.fourmilab.ch/solar/solar.html An "orrery" is a mechanical model of the solar system. The author of this site calls it "the interactive orrery of the Web." Adjust the latitude and longitude to view the planets from any imaginable angle; also maneuverable are the date (from 4712 B.C. to A.D. 8000), image size, and portion of the system to be seen. You can also key in the orbital elements of an asteroid or comet and follow its progress.
Solar System Simulator http://space.jpl.nasa.gov A "spyglass on the cosmos," the Solar System Simulator allows visitors to view any of the nine planets in the solar system, their moons, or the sun. What's interesting about this site is that viewers can determine the vantage point from which to see a planet; view Saturn from Mars, for example, Earth from the sun, or Jupiter from the Voyager 1 spacecraft. You can also set the year to show views from the years 1600 to 2399.
The Sun: Source of Life http://www.worldbook.com/fun/ssystem/sun/html/intro.htm World Book presents this excellent overview of the sun, our most important star. Illustrations and easy-to-understand, lively text discuss Important Facts About the Sun, How the Sun Produces Energy and Affects Earth, The Sun as a Star, and Studying the Sun. Links to related Web sites provide areas for further research. Another good site on the sun is The Sun (http://www.astro.uva.nl/demo/sun/kaft.htm), where full-color images and MPEG movies illustrate a comprehensive tour of the sun.
Views of the Solar System http://www.solarviews.com Views of the Solar System is a huge, fascinating site packed with all sorts of information on every corner of the solar system. For each planet, the site contains movies, diagrams, statistics, photos, information on discoveries and explorations, links, educator resources, and more. Views of the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy; a history of space exploration (including a full chronology of planetary discoveries); and pictures of meteorites, comets, and asteroids are available as well. You can read this site in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French.
Note: Most of the above sites are provided through Visalia Unified's subscription to WebFeet www.webfeetguides.com
Collected April 2002
