Space Software for the adventurer in all of us - 3D star maps, multiple sky views, and more

Deep Space

Once you've passed the Oort Cloud of cold, cometary material — far past Pluto — you're fully into the realm of interstellar space. Like Columbus when Spain was no longer in sight, you've entered the great ocean of space that separates the stars, no longer surrounded by the far-flung members of the Solar family.

Just as the oceans have their islands, this void may not be as empty as once thought. Voyagers may need to be ever watchful for brown and black dwarfs, as well as rogue planets in the cold, dim stretches between stars. These dark dwarfs are failed stars — stillborn systems that never gained sufficient mass to ignite their nuclear furnaces. Some may generate sufficient warmth to be detected in the infrared part of the spectrum. These emissions are the remnants of the heat of compression from their initial formation, millions, if not billions, of years earlier.

Free Space Posters for your PC
With your paid order, you'll have access to download a set of sixteen (16) Space Posters — scenes of other worlds, and alien constellations, too spectacular to describe in words. Click here to get a glimpse of this colorful collection.

Alpha Centauri — Our Closest Neighbor

Next door to Sol stands a 3-star system that is thought to be far older than our own. In fact, based on the chemical signature of each star's light output, the system may be as much as two billion years older. If habitable planets formed there, if life had a chance to start, and if that life evolved similarly to that on Earth, then there may be a civilization next door, at least hundreds of millions of years older than our own.

In Stars in the Hood™, you will see that the third member of Alpha Centauri is not very close to the brighter pair that forms the core of the system. That dim, third member is "Proxima Centauri," named for the fact that it's slightly closer to Sol and Earth, and 7% of a parsec from the main pair. That translates into 1.3 trillion miles (that's American "trillion," not British, or 10¹², or 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10). That's such a great distance, Proxima would be barely visible in the night sky of an Alpha Centauran world — a 5^th magnitude star imbedded in a strange looking Taurus constellation. One of thousands of "Alien Skies™" views you'll see in Stars in the NeighborHood.

While Cruising the Neighborhood...

(Stars in the NeighborHood Description – Page 3 of 5)

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