A few important changes in recent weeks: the software is now completely free of charge and is moving definitively to Qt 6.X.
It is enriched with new features and integrates the Chromium browser, which improves the visualization of pages written in html (this only concerns the “Info” section for the moment). I rechecked the accuracy of the calculations for an imminent asteroid observation mission at the Pic du Midi observatory. During these checks, I could see that W3 is much faster and easier to use than more popular tools. Sorry for the lack of objectivity 😉
I’m continuing to develop it, even if its audience remains very modest. I’ve renounced to use X (twitter) which is becoming a cloaca more and more disgusting. I opened an account on Mastodon but without much conviction. I’ve never been particularly passionate by social networks.
On April 14, 2023, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) mission was launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket towards Jupiter’s natural satellites. The spacecraft will fly by Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede multiple times before entering orbit around Ganymede in December 2034 for an in-depth study that will conclude in September 2035.
The primary goal of the JUICE mission is to determine whether conditions favorable to life exist in the subglacial oceans that are believed to be present on these three Galilean moons. The objective is to study the characteristics of these oceans and understand their formation. In addition, the spacecraft will contribute to deepening our knowledge of Jupiter’s atmosphere and magnetosphere.
The JUICE spacecraft weighs approximately 5.1 tons and uses large solar panels to generate its power. It carries nearly 285 kilograms of scientific instruments, including spectrometers to study the composition of the moons’ soil and atmosphere, a camera and an altimeter to map their surfaces, a radar to examine the superficial layers of the subsurface (including the ice crust and potential oceans), a radio experiment to deduce the celestial bodies’ internal structure, a magnetometer, and instruments to measure fields and particles to analyze the characteristics of the space environment.
The journey to Jupiter will take about seven and a half years, during which the spacecraft will perform several gravitational assist maneuvers to accelerate and adjust its trajectory. These maneuvers include flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mars, allowing JUICE to reach Jupiter in 2029.
The free downloadable “Juice” module allows you to track the probe’s trajectory until 2031 (for now).
Also worth checking out: this article published on the Freeappsforme website. Good luck to them!
This new revision introduces a module (star3d) that enhances the appearance of stars by adding specific textures for each spectral type as well as 3D prominences. The representation is not entirely accurate from a scientific standpoint, as the visible surface of the stars and the prominences seem to combine different wavelengths. However, this adds just a bit of complexity.
Version 3.0.283 also removes the video mode, which has proven to be useless for most smartphones. Indeed, video sensors generally perform poorly in low light conditions and cannot detect stars in viewfinder mode. Moreover, this feature required overly intrusive permissions, such as access to the camera and microphone.
WinStars 3 is currently based on the Qt 5 software library, which allows for compatibility with all platforms, among other features. However, this Qt 5 version is now becoming obsolete, and it’s time to switch to the latest available version. This transition will help reduce incompatibilities with the most recent operating systems and introduce new features to the program.
Since this is a major update, it is likely that numerous issues will arise during this transition. That’s why I have decided to offer a beta version for in-depth testing.
If you’re interested, you can try out this test version for Windows by clicking on the following link:
Introducing 3D landscapes! For now, this new feature remains experimental. The program currently only displays a single object (a mesh) containing all the elements of the landscape (vegetation, buildings, etc.). These 3D objects have been obtained through photogrammetry, a technique that involves capturing a scene from multiple viewpoints to create a volumetric reconstruction.
The solar radio telescope element seen in WinStars.The complexity of the mesh can be viewed by activating the 3D/wireframe mode option.
However, this solution is not optimal. The elements of the landscapes are still too approximate in places, and the files are too large. Later on, I will use the tessellation technique to improve rendering quality and reduce file size.
After several months of interruption, the development of WinStars is gradually resuming. Among the recent features, we can mention the addition of all known exoplanets, which can be easily located from the planetarium mode.
Since the first discoveries by Aleksander Wolszczan and Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz in the 1990s, thousands of exoplanets are now listed in catalogs. The Corot, Kepler, and Tess space missions have significantly increased their numbers in recent years, and the James Webb Space Telescope is also contributing to their direct observation. We can mention the example of HIP 65426 b and the first image of an exoplanet obtained in mid-infrared. This is a very young giant exoplanet, about 15 million years old, located 90 astronomical units from its star. With an estimated mass of about 7 times that of Jupiter, it was discovered using the European instrument SPHERE at the Very Large Telescope in 2017.
Images of the exoplanet HIP 65426 b observed by NIRCAM (3.3 and 4.4 microns) and MIRI (11.4 and 15.5 microns). The white star indicates the position of the host star. NASA/STScI/ESA published by Carter et al. 2022
The complete list of exoplanets can be accessed from the program by entering the command “list exo” in the search bar. You can also locate an object by simply entering its identifier. The database used by W3 comes from the exoplanet.eu website and will be updated every week.
51 Pegasi b was the first exoplanet identified around a main-sequence star. It was discovered in 1995 by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz.
The revision 3.0.268 also proposes to follow the position of the Orion capsule in real time. The objective of this Artemis 1 mission is to return to the Moon in 2025 and ultimately maintain a more or less continuous human presence there.
The Orion capsule of the Artemis 1 mission.
The next revisions of W3 will include the ability to visit these exoplanets in the 3D Navigation mode. I also plan to add 3D landscapes to the planetarium mode (for fun) and many more features… But I’ll tell you more about that later.
I am continuing to improve the program’s stability. It is therefore essential to report any operational anomalies using the bugtracker or forums (here and there1). Thank you for your participation!
(1) A big thank you to Sora Kozima for creating this forum on discord.com!
