A breakthrough electronic book about our Solar System, offering hours of interactive exploration and presenting a treasure trove of visual information.
Bestselling author Marcus Chown leads us on a grand tour through the incredible diversity of planets, moons, asteroids, comets and spacecraft that surround the Sun in our cosmic backyard. Illuminating his insightful and surprising text are a wealth of beautiful 3D objects, movies, images, animations, and diagrams, all fully interactive, richly detailed and accurately based on real scientific data.
Set the heavens in motion in an interactive orrery that allows you to control the orbits of the moons and planets, observing them from any viewpoint with breath-taking surface detail. View the latest imagery returned by both manned and robot spacecraft, beautifully presented on the iPad screen. Then double-tap any astronomical object to jump directly to its chapter in the interactive book.
Solar System for iPad is the result of a collaboration between RGB (creators of The Elements) and Faber & Faber (London’s greatest independent publisher). It raises the bar yet again on what an interactive book can be. A perfect gift for anyone with an iPad: Solar System allows the imagination to roam free from Mercury to Pluto and beyond.
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Awards:
Winner of the FutureBook Digital Innovation Prize (The Bookseller Industry Awards) – March 2011
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Reviews:
“There is so much to this application that I can only begin to scratch the surface on its offerings. As with The Elements the content and presentation truly make learning fun and inspiring.”
- WIRED Magazine
“The new Solar System for iPad app is an amazing and extraordinarily attractive resource for amateur astronomers... an out-of-this-world digital book that is as informative as it is beautiful. It’s a stellar example for other reference app makers on how to best take advantage of the tablet medium.”
- USA Today, Marc Saltzman
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Features:
• Exclusive theme song by Björk
• More than150 beautifully presented story pages
• Richly Illustrated with interactive diagrams, videos and 3D objects
• Over 40 rotatable and zoomable 3D astronomical objects
• Over 600 images from NASA, ESA and JAXA space missions
• Detailed captions including technical data
• Live astronomical information from Wolfram|Alpha®
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About the author:
Leading science writer and former radio astronomer Marcus Chown is cosmology consultant to New Scientist magazine and the author of numerous books including The Quantum Zoo (known internationally as Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You).
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Solar System FAQ
Is Solar System free?
Yes, Solar System is completely free and it doesn't have any in-app purchases or subscriptions.
Is Solar System legit?
🤔 The Solar System app's quality is mixed. Some users are satisfied, while others report issues. Consider reading individual reviews for more context.
I like this app. It’s really nice, the layout is wonderful, it’s easy to use. I was so excited when I finally saw an update for this app. However, none of the imagery was updated. Pluto is still pre-New Horizon’s picture. We have so many beautiful images of Jupiter now with the Juno spacecraft as well as many other bodies in our solar system. For the price, this app should be updated regularly to keep up with the information. Wanted to use it for teaching but unfortunately I can get better images off the web. Would give it five stars if there is a major imagery update.
Disappointing imagery
However great the data in this app the imagery is so 10 years ago. Poorly spent money.
Amazing but where’s Eris and makemake
Cool but where’s eris and makemake I guess there in Oort Cloud
Needs major update!!
I’ve had this app since it came out and they are horrible!! For updating data. Better apps for wayyy cheaper. Look at Pluto!!
Nice, but needs an update
For the price, this app really needs new content. I would expect information and imagery from New Horizons, Rosetta, Dawn, and possibly Juno. The lack of new content at a $10 price point makes me feel ripped off.
That said, I found the layout great. With more up to date content, this would be an easy 5 stars.
Needs An Update
I like this app, but it’s in severe need of an update.
Freezes constantly
So this freezes constantly, and I mean constantly. It doesn't run for more than visualizing one or two planets. I have deleted and reloaded it multiple times without a fix. When it does work, it is completely silent, even the song. I assume they're supposed be some sound here. I'm not running it on old machine, this is an iPad Pro. As others have mentioned, there is been no new content added for probably 10 months (judging from the dull yellow/brown fuzzball they use as a model for Pluto). This wasn't exactly cheap as apps go, certainly not in the same league as Elements for quality. I would get my money back if I can figure out how.
Amazing Solar System reference, But needs recent data
Allows you to view the bodies of our Solar System, with pages of text and images, with an incredible Solar System model in 3D that can be expanded, shrunk, sped up and slowed down.
Every bit as good as the author's reference on The Elements —
However, data in the App (recent images of Pluto come to mind) really need updating.
So, no more updates to content? - Way behind
I like the interface for walking students through research methods. It's cleaner / faster than a full up 3D interface on the iPad and a big screen.
But if you're not going to keep up with the rapidly changing local universe...
Worthless
This app worked fine before the latest upgrade. Now it won't even open. The upgrade reaches about 20% then freezes permanently. Reinstalling the app won't work either.
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