Article by George Norman

On 06 Jan 2012

For the very low price of 99 cents you could get two apps developed by the team behind the computational knowledge engine Wolfra Alpha, apps that will help you explore the cosmos. The two apps in question are the Wolfram Planets Reference App and the Wolfram Stars Reference App. These app use the computational knowledge of Wolfram Alpha to perform advanced calculations and provide data on the planets and stars. The next time you go stargazing, you definitely need to bring these apps along with you.

Before you do that, let’s take a quick look at the Wolfram Planets Reference App and the Wolfram Stars Reference App, shall we? Here goes.


Wolfram Planets Reference App



This app provides real-time data on the 8 major planets in the solar system; it also provides real-time data on dwarf planets and minor planets. Here are the features you can expect to get if you spend 99 cents to purchase the app:

• - Compute planets' orbital properties, including orbital period and distance from the Earth and Sun
• - Learn about physical properties like radius, mass, rotation period, and number of moons
• - Get information about a planet's atmosphere, including atmospheric pressure, average temperature, and major constituents
• - See a map of the current solar system configuration and an image of the planet
• - Find nearby sky objects, current sky position from your location, and next rise and set
• - Find out which planets are visible from your current location or from any location
• - Perform advanced physical astronomy computations using stationary orbits, escape velocity, and Kepler's third law.

You can get the Wolfram Planets Reference App from the App Store here.

Wolfram Stars Reference App



This app provides real-time data on more than 100,000 stars. You can find out more about the brightest stars, nearest stars, or Northern Sky stars. Select the group you want and access the wealth of information the app has to offer. Here are the features you can expect to get from the Wolfram Stars Reference App:

• - For easy browsing, stars are sorted into groups such as the Northern or Southern Sky Stars; Brightest Stars; Nearest Stars; and Giant, Supergiant, and Main Sequence Stars
• - The Star Lookup allows you to enter any star name in the input field
• - Examine and compare properties for each star, such as its magnitude, spectral class, temperature, mass, lifetime, and distance from Earth
• - See the star's position on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram
• - Compute the star's current sky position from your location, find out whether it is visible, and learn the times of the star's next rise and set
• - Perform advanced astronomical calculations using the Stefan–Boltzmann law, Wien's displacement law, blackbody luminosity, and mass-luminosity relationship.

You can get the Wolfram Stars Reference App from the App Store here. Just like the Wolfram Planets Reference App, it is priced at $0.99.



Tags: Wolfram Alpha, Apple, App Store

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