Physics: Astronomy

Established by NASA and JPL in 1998 to "provide a focal point for the study of comets and asteriods which can approach the Earth's orbit".

Provides an introduction to this important branch of astronomy. The site includes a gallery of infrared images.

Produced by the National Space Science Data Center and provide extensive statistical data on the nine planets, selected comets and asteroids. Similar to the Nine Planets site listed below, but without graphics and narrative. If you're interested in NASA images of planets and moons, JPL's Photojournal site provides an easy way to access them. The independently produced Views of the Solar System uses NASA imagery and text to provide a multimedia guide.

Updated monthly.

Daily solar activity.

Chille.

University of Texas.

Three telescopes located in the Canary Islands.

Eighteen telescopes at eight sites around the world; based in Goleta.

Flagstaff, Arizona.

Includes the Lick Observatory.

Provides information on the Solar-Earth environment including Solar wind, Solar flares and Earth-crossing asteriods and meteor showers.

An overview of the history, mythology and current scientific knowledge of the planets, moons and other objects in our solar system. Each page has our text and NASA's images, some have sounds and movies, most provide references to additional related information.

Astronomiae Historia / History of Astronomy was created in January 1995 on behalf of the Working Group for the History of Astronomy in the Astronomische Gesellschaft. Since March 1998 this site is also maintained on behalf of Commission 41 (History of Astronomy) of the International Astronomical Union.

Contains lists of named stars, constellations and non-stellar objects from the Messier catalog.

Uses a 2.5 meter telescope to make five color images of large sections of the sky. Recently the SDSS imaged a quasar of very high redshift, making it one of the most distant objects ever viewed by humans.

Phil Plaitt's web site devoted to correcting "astronomical" errors in the media. Such diverse topics as the ability to balance an egg on end only on the Vernal Equinox and the Fox network's TV special explaining how the Apollo moon landings were "faked" by NASA are covered from a professional astronomer's perspective.

Allows you to zoom from a point 12.5 light years from our Sun to view the entire visible universe!

Images of user-selected objects outside the solar system.

Allows the user to calculate the effects of an asteriod or comet impact depending on user defined variables.

Contains nineteen million objects! Compiled to help "point" the Hubble Space Telescope. Searchable.

Allows the user to type in the catalog number of an object and obtain data and an image from the NGC 2000.0 catalog and the Digital Sky Survey. This site may not work with all browsers.

Provides data on many of the stars within 75 light years of the Sun, as well as some of the more well known stars at greater distances. You can find the distance to Betelgeuse or Lalande 21185's proper motion.

Has a neat Java applet which can find your location automatically by using your computer's IP address. Using this information this site will plot the planets, stars and Deep Sky Objects for a given time. It also will provide Sun rise/set and Moon rise/set times, an orrery, daylight/night time hours and other information.

Another interactive site from NASA and JPL. Allows one to generate comet ephemeris from a user-definable location, view lists of all known planetary moons, and see "face on" models of the solar system complete with the asteriod belt.

Online orrery.

An interactive planetarium which produces sky maps for a given time/date for a given location on the Earth's surface. The Messier and NGC catalogs are used to display nonstellar objects. This site has many features normally available only on commercial planetarium software.