Stars and Planets 4+
Universe 3D Space & Astronomy
Andrei Nistorescu
Designed for iPad
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- Free
- Offers In-App Purchases
Screenshots
Description
Stars and Planets is an interactive map of our galaxy. Explore the planets and satellites of our Solar System from the comfort of your spaceship. Fly through the atmosphere of Mars and many other planets.
Take a thrilling ride through space and visit strange alien star systems, newly discovered exoplanets, asteroid belts, black holes and pulsars.
Do you want to travel through space with a warp engine? Play with the orbital motions of star systems, planets and satellites. Ever wondered how far from us are the stars you see in the night sky? Stars and Planets is a space model of the universe.
This interactive 3D map is excellent for teachers to use for instruction, and it is a great astronomy resource for students to explore the Milky Way galaxy and space as they learn more about the universe we live in. Available in over 100 languages!
Features
▶ Almost 4.5 million stars, over 4500 exoplanets, 200 circumstellar disks, 39 black holes, 11 magnetars, around 2500 pulsars and 152 satellites in this simulated view of our Universe
▶ Catalogs are updated daily from multiple sources, without needing to update the app. Whenever NASA & ESA James Webb Space Telescope - JWST - will find new celestial bodies, they will be included automatically
▶ 3D representations of all star systems and their orbits in space
▶ black holes in binary systems, including the famous Cygnus X-1 and the Great Annihilator (the only binary system with a black hole and a pulsar)
▶ pulsar exoplanets - the first type of exoplanet ever discovered beyond our solar system, orbiting the extremely dense core of a massive star that exploded as a supernova
▶ magnetars, a special and rare type of neutron star
▶ Search for stars, planets, moons, black holes and neutron stars by a wide range of parameters: name, type, system type, constellation, catalog, star type (color)
An internet connection is necessary to access the online stellar database as well as the wiki information. A subset of the database can be queried offline including planetary and orbital data.
Data imported from various sources including: SIMBAD, The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia, NASA Exoplanet Archive, Planet Habitability Laboratory
What’s New
Version 3.2.10
V3.2.10
- fixed a bug for Venus
- fixed a bug for brown dwarfs
- fixed a bug for exoplanets like GJ 3470 b
Ratings and Reviews
Close up look at distant stars
One caveat: the app only lets you view a 10-parsec cube at a time; no giant overview to give a clear idea of how far from the sun the area you're looking at is.
However, this is only the second 3D map I've found of our corner of the galaxy that's not stuck centered on the sun! If you'd like a closer view of the area around a particular star, from any angle (what do the Pleiades look like from the back?), this is excellent. Selecting any star gives some basic information: other names, type, magnitude, temperature, a diagram comparing its size to the sun, and a map showing its position in the night sky. There's also a Wikipedia link, though some star pages don't exist yet. Ads generally stay out of the way at the top of the screen, though sometimes they get in way of the back button on star pages (just rotate your phone). Search function hasn't failed to find the stars I'm interested in, but I don't know enough to look for anything really obscure, so I don't know how thorough it is. Very pleased with the app overall!
Developer Response ,
Thanks for the great review!
I've split the map into 10-parsec cubes so that it works on older models with no significant lag. It is possible to view more than that, I was thinking of adding a "zoom out" feature that shows the adjacent sectors, so instead of viewing a 10 parsec cubes, you will be viewing 30 parsec cubes. I will have to test how much more can be zoomed.
But my first major update to this app will be a highlights section with a list of famous stars, weird stars, multiple star systems.
Explore the Stellar Neighborhood
I’ve greatly enjoyed using this app to traipse across the local area of the galaxy and see where stars are near each other in 3D space. The ads in the free version are unobtrusive and I’m considering upgrading to the full version just because I like enjoy it so much, even though the free version fulfills my needs without issue. The 10-parsec sectors would be perfect for making a map in a sci-fi roleplaying game.
One feature I would like to see, however, is a setting to change from xyz equatorial coordinates to uvw galactic coordinates so I could know whether I was getting closer to the galactic core or farther away, above or below the galactic plane, or in the direction of spin without having to do calculations in my head. Maybe an option to rotate the +Z into the vertical position instead of the +Y too, since I instinctively associate the North star with “up” when working in equatorial coordinates.
Developer Response ,
I hope you like this new version, I've completely redesigned the app, and new planets are added daily without needing an update (if new ones have been confirmed). Thanks for the review!
Broken
I really liked this app, but the last 2 updates have completely broken it. The background has changed to white instead of black, I can’t see the stars anymore. It’s effectively unusable. Really hoping it gets fixed soon
EDIT 1/3/22: The white background has been fixed, and this app is now back and better than ever! So glad to see it working again - 5 stars! This is the best 3D star map program I’ve been able to find anywhere, which is why I was so bummed out when it turned into a blank white screen. It looks great again now!
Developer Response ,
Should be fixed now in 2.4.14, sorry!
App Privacy
The developer, Andrei Nistorescu, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Andrei Nistorescu
- Size
- 247.1 MB
- Category
- Education
- Compatibility
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- iPhone
- Requires iOS 12.0 or later.
- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 12.0 or later.
- iPod touch
- Requires iOS 12.0 or later.
- Mac
- Requires macOS 11.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- Languages
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English, Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Assamese, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chichewa, Corsican, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Frisian, Gaelic, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Kinyarwanda, Korean, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Maori, Marathi, Mongolian, Nepali, Norwegian Bokmål, Oriya, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbian, Sesotho, Shona, Simplified Chinese, Sindhi, Singhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Sudanese, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tajik, Tamil, Tatar, Telugu, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Turkmen, Uighur, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh, Xhosa, Yiddish, Yoruba, Zulu
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © Andrei Nistorescu
- Price
- Free
- In-App Purchases
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- Buy ship - Alien Destroyer $1.99
- All-in-one bundle $6.99
- Remove ads $3.99
- Buy ship - Alien fighter $1.99
- All-in-one bundle $3.99
- Buy ship - Alien fighter $0.99
- Remove ads $1.99
- Buy ship - Alien Destroyer $0.99
Supports
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Family Sharing
Some in‑app purchases, including subscriptions, may be shareable with your family group when Family Sharing is enabled.