It is said that a child out of two dreams of becoming an astronaut and flying in space. When you are grown up you realize that that is an almost impossible dream and that wearing a space suit is something very few people in the world can do. However, the thing that can be done from home or from outside is to look at the sky and peer, perhaps with a telescope, planets and stars. But space and astronomy enthusiasts have a lot of information to look for and find on the internet. Today, one can easily become virtual astronomers, sitting in front of the computer, thanks to web applications with online telescopes to look at the space, the stars and the sky like Google Sky and Google Mars .
There are also some free programs and simulation games that allow you to simulate space flight, travel and look at Earth from the NASA spaceship.
For fans of space things, stars and planets, I want to report these among 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) NASA's 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 incredible 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 could be liked by Star Trek fans.
3) Galaxy Zoo is a more advanced astronomy project that requires knowledge of basic concepts about galaxies. It is about participating with your computer in search of new galaxies by classifying them according to specific schemes. The images of the space come from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
4) Star Atlas is a simulated planetarium that allows you to observe stars, constellations and planets from a specific position.
5) The interactive 3D solar system is a magnificent web application with an online planetarium to explore and watch.
6) We Choose The Moon is a site I have already talked about that celebrates 40 years of the first moon landing. The mission was recreated with precise details, with many historical images, audio and multimedia galleries.
7) Explore Mars Now is a site that simulates life on Mars if it was colonized by man.
8) NASA's Mars Trek is the site with which the American space agency seeks everyone's contribution to drawing the map of Mars with precision. To participate in the interactive project you must register declaring that you want to be a citizen of Mars. Inside the site you can zoom in on the Martian surface and collect lots of information and curiosities.
9) Always from NASA, the Extreme Planet MakeOver game allows you to create a new planet, customize it as you want, with the atmosphere, the dimensions, the solar system, the stars and so on and see how it evolves.
10) How big is the space is an interactive simulation of the BBC website that shows us, in a super simple way, how big is the space and all the most important distances above us.
11) GigaGalaxy Zoom shows the sky full of stars, as it appears with 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. An additional zoom level instead reveals the details of a nebula. The idea behind the project is to serve as an aid to the untrained observer, when he (or she) looks up into the sky at night without a telescope.
12) On the SketchFab site 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.
These astronomy sites, although 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.
