Instructify

Sometimes you have to take a step back and look at the big picture to fully appreciate something. When that picture is as big as, say, the solar system, you may need to take more than a few more steps backward. Or you could visit the Solar System Visualizer and see everything on your monitor.

This web app lets you view the celestial clockwork of our solar system, including the orbits of the planets (and Pluto, too), plus all the moons and minor bodies floating around out there. Students can zoom in for a closer look at each planet — check out the Spirograph generated by all the bodies orbiting Jupiter. You can even view a few extrasolar systems, such as Epsilon Eridani with its one lousy planet.

A couple drawbacks to the Solar System Visualizer: since the planets aren’t drawn to scale, and the model doesn’t account for bodies’ individual gravitational pulls, it won’t be as useful to older learners in a physics class, for example. But if you’re teaching an elementary science unit, The Solar System Visualizer will help you put our eight-plus-one planets into perspective for your students. -BILL FERRIS

Solar System Visualizer

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