Celestia facts for kids
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| Original author(s) | Chris Laurel |
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| Developer(s) | Celestia Development Team |
| Initial release | 26 February 2001 |
| Stable release |
1.6.4 / 5 November 2023
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| Written in | C++ |
| Operating system | AmigaOS 4, BSD, Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android |
| Size | Linux: 27.7 MB AmigaOS 4: 44.4 MB macOS: 38.7 MB Windows: 32.8 MB Source code: 52.6 MB |
| Available in | 31 languages |
| Type | Educational software |
| License | GPLv2 |
Celestia is a cool 3D computer program that lets you explore the entire universe! It was made in 2001 by Chris Laurel. With Celestia, you can fly through space and visit all sorts of amazing objects.
Think of it like a planetarium, but way better. You're not stuck on Earth. You can travel anywhere, from tiny moons to huge galaxies. Celestia uses special computer graphics called OpenGL to show you everything.
You can get Celestia for many different devices. It works on computers like Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows. It's also available for phones and tablets, including iOS and Android. The best part is, it's completely free to use!
Celestia stopped being updated for a while around 2013. But don't worry, a new team started working on it again in 2016. Now, it gets regular updates and new test versions. You can download it from its official website or other free software sites. Millions of people have downloaded it to explore space!
What Can Celestia Do?
Celestia helps you see many objects in space. It shows over 2 million stars from different star catalogs. It also uses special math to show you where planets, moons, asteroids, and comets are. You can even see artificial satellites and spacecraft!
Explore Planets and Moons
You can see the names of space objects and even features on Earth. This includes continents, mountains, and cities. On other planets and moons, you can see craters and canyons.
Travel Through Space
Celestia lets you move at different speeds. You can orbit around stars, planets, and moons. You can also follow spacecraft or comets as they zoom by. Want to visit a galaxy far away? You can do that too! The program can even show you how light travels through space.
Time Travel in Space
You can set the time in Celestia to almost any point. Go back 2 billion years or forward 2 billion years! This lets you see how things might have looked in the past or future.
See Realistic Views
Celestia makes planets and moons look real. It shows how atmospheres appear and how light from planets shines on their moons. You can also see sunrises and sunsets. The program can even tell you facts about objects, like their temperature or size.
Customize Your View
You can change how much of space you see at once. You can also split your screen into different sections. This means you can look at several objects at the same time. You can even take pictures or record videos of your space journeys!
Add More to Celestia
Celestia can be made even bigger with "add-ons." These are extra files made by users. They can add new objects, textures, or 3D models. Some add-ons are real, and some are fictional. Celestia also has special scripts that let you run different commands.
What Celestia Doesn't Do (Yet!)
Celestia is amazing, but it has a few limits.
Earth's Surface
By default, Celestia shows Earth as a perfect ball. It doesn't show all the bumps and curves of mountains and valleys. This can make satellites look like they are in the wrong place sometimes.
Missing Objects
Some types of space objects aren't in Celestia by default. This includes things like variable stars (stars that change brightness) or nebulae (giant clouds of gas and dust). But many of these can be added with add-ons!
Star Movement
Planets and moons move, and stars spin. But Celestia doesn't show how stars slowly move across the sky over thousands of years. So, the shapes of constellations stay the same in Celestia. Also, it doesn't show all the details of how stars orbit each other in multiple star systems.
Distant Objects
Celestia doesn't show stars that are super far away. This is because it's hard to measure their exact positions. In older versions, it only showed stars up to a certain distance. Newer versions show more, but there are still limits. Also, objects very far from their parent stars might not show up.
Light and Gravity
Celestia tries to show what space looks like to human eyes. It doesn't show things like different types of light (like X-rays). It also doesn't show camera effects like lens flare.
Celestia also doesn't simulate gravity. If an asteroid flies close to Earth, Celestia won't show Earth's gravity pulling on it. This effect has to be added manually.
Shadows and Moons
Some moons don't cast shadows on their planets during eclipses. This happens if the moon has an irregular shape. Also, very small moons (less than 0.5% the size of their planet) don't cast shadows at all. The team might change this in the future.
Spacecraft Models
Many real-world spacecraft, like Voyager 2, aren't included in Celestia by default. You can add them using user-made add-ons. Some of the spacecraft models that come with Celestia are also a bit old. But newer versions are getting better models!
Time Limits
Celestia uses the Julian calendar. It can't go back or forward more than 2 billion years. Also, the default time system only works between the years -9999 and 9999.
Awesome Add-ons
The Celestia community has made tons of extra content! There are over 80 GB of add-ons you can download.
Better Textures and Models
You can get super high-quality surface textures for planets and moons. This lets you zoom in really close and see amazing details. There are also 3D models of real spacecraft. You can see them flying on their actual paths.
More Stars and Objects
Add-ons can give you millions more stars with correct positions. You can also find more DSOs like nebulae and galaxies. There are also huge lists of asteroids and comets.
Cool Space Events
You can find add-ons that show you unique space objects. These include different types of stars, black holes, and star nurseries. You can even see things like auroras on planets or animated solar prominences (flares from the Sun). Some add-ons show historical events, like space missions or meteor impacts.
Guided Tours
Many scripts are available that act like guided tours. They can show you complex space missions or explain how stars change over time. You can also see interesting events, like multiple moons eclipsing a planet at once.
Fictional Universes
One of the coolest things is that you can add fictional universes! This means you can explore planets and spacecraft from movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek, or Star Wars. You can even find worlds created by other Celestia users.
Learning Add-ons
There are also add-ons made for learning. These can give you hours of space journeys and astronomy lessons. They cover topics like the life cycle of stars, our Solar System, and human space exploration. You can even see how the Moon formed or imagine Mars becoming more like Earth in the future.
Community Projects
The Celestia community keeps making new and better add-ons. Projects like "Celestia Origin" and "Project Echoes" replace old graphics with amazing new ones. They add more planets, nebulae, and galaxies. These projects make Celestia look even more realistic and beautiful!
See also
In Spanish: Celestia para niños
- Gravity (software)
- OpenUniverse
- Planetarium software
- SpaceEngine
- Space flight simulation game
- List of space flight simulation games
- List of observatory software
