It is said that one in two children dreams of becoming an astronaut and flying into space. When you are older you realize that that is an almost impossible dream and that wearing a spacesuit is something that very few people in the world can do. However, the thing that can be done from home or from external places is to look at the sky and scrutinize, perhaps with a telescope, planets and stars. But fans of space and astronomy they have a lot of information to search and find on the internet.Today, one can easily become virtual astronomers, while sitting in front of the computer, thanks to web applications with online telescopes to watch the space, the stars and the sky like Google Sky e Google Mars.
There are also some free programs and simulation games that allow you to simulate space flight, travel and look at the Earth from the NASA spaceship.
For fans of space things, stars and planets, I want to report these between the best astronomy websites
1) Google Sky is the best with the high resolution sky map from which you can look at celestial objects outside the solar system. The interactive celestial map is useful for both amateur and professional astronomers.
2) The NASA website has put its entire collection of images, sounds and videos of galaxies, planets and space missions online for free. There are over 140.000 images, sounds and videos in the media library, available for viewing or downloading, without copyright. In addition to the database of amazing space images there are other interesting objects such as missions, launches, events, astronauts, the International Space Station, SpaceX launches and some short videos narrated by William Shatner that may please Star Trek fans.
3) Galaxy Zoo is a more advanced astronomy project that requires knowledge of basic galaxy concepts. It involves participating with your computer in the search for new galaxies by classifying them according to specific schemes. The images of the space come from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
5) The 3D interactive solar system is a great web application with an online planetarium for you to explore and watch.
6) On the site sketchfab there are computer simulations based on data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, three-dimensional simulations that allow you to explore cosmic objects in 3D. You can see, for example, what the Orion Nebula would look like from another angle, thus having a better understanding of some of the key properties of a celestial object, such as its speed and geometry.
7) Explore Mars Now is a site that simulates the vita su Mars if it were colonized by man.
8) Mars Trek NASA is the site with which the American space agency seeks everyone's contribution for draw the map of Mars accurately. To participate in the interactive project, you must register by declaring that you want to be a citizen of Mars. Within the site you can zoom in on the Martian surface and collect lots of information and curiosities.
9) Also from NASA, the game Exoplanet allows us to see which Earth-like planets have been discovered (or rather are candidates to be).
10 ) How big is the space is an interactive simulation of the BBC site that shows us, in a super simple way, how big the space is and all the most important distances above us.
11 ) GigaGalaxy Zoom shows the sky full of stars, as it appears to the naked eye looking out the window or from the balcony with a very high resolution image. With a zoom you can simulate viewing from a telescope. A further level of zoom reveals the details of a nebula instead. The idea behind the project is to serve as an aid to the untrained observer, when he (or she) looks up at the night sky without a telescope.
These astronomy sites, even if they are in English, are not only beautiful but also extremely educational because they combine precise facts with images that help to understand the vastness of the space.
Best astronomy sites to watch stars and planets in the sky
