Alexandria, Virginia – Vito Technology today is thrilled to announce that Planet Nine has been added to Star Walk 2, the company’s best-selling stargazing guide for iOS and Android devices. The recently discovered ninth planet of the solar system is for the first time featured in an interactive space atlas. It has the most accurate estimated trajectory to date, and all important facts and figures, such as mass, radius, distance from the Sun, etc. Among other new features of this update are 3D Touch, allowing users to access Sky Live, Search, or Star Spotter directly from home screen, and calendar of astronomy events for 2016.
Planet Nine is a hypothetical large planet in the far outer Solar System, with an estimated mass of about 10 times that of Earth, a diameter two to four times larger than that of Earth, and a highly elliptical orbit so far away that it could take it 15,000 years to orbit the Sun. Star Walk developers reached out to the scientists behind this discovery, Konstantin Batygin and Michael E. Brown of the California Institute of Technology, to obtain orbit position data necessary for adding this new object to app’s database.
All available findings are now included in Star Walk 2 and the planet is visualized similarly to the other planets of the solar system. The position of the object is calculated for any desired time and date, and users can study the estimated mass, radius, distance from the Sun and other numbers revealed by the researchers.
With this update Star Walk 2 supports 3D Touch: users can access Sky Live, Search, or Star Spotter directly from home screen.
Astronomy Calendar for 2016 will notify users of interesting upcoming astronomy events, (meteor showers, conjunctions, eclipses), passes of the International Space Station, and iridium flares visible from their location. The notifications will be visible on Apple Watch, and in app widget.
Other minor improvements include new icons for the planets of the solar system, design tweaks, new information table for space missions and satellites.
Star Walk 2 is a sequel of the well-known Star Walk app that was released back in 2008 and has acquired more than 10 million users across the world on iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle, and Windows Phone. It’s been an educational best-seller for over five years and won multiple awards, including Apple Design Award in 2010. Star Walk helps to find and identify thousands of stars, satellites, and comets in real time. Using built-in digital compass and motion tracking, this stargazing guide turns the phone into a full-on planetarium.
Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
* Requires iOS 7.0 or later
* 149 MB
Pricing and Availability:
Star Walk 2 (v2.1.0) is $2.99 USD (All additional content $2.99) or equivalent amount in other currencies, and available worldwide through the App Store in the Education category. There is also an Android version available on Google Play.
Vito Technology
Star Walk 2 (v2.1.0)
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Based in Alexandria, Virginia, Vito Technology Inc. is headed by CEO Victor Toporkov and has developed an impressive portfolio of products for Windows Mobile since it entered the mobile software market in 2001. The company’s latest endeavors include iOS and Web 2.0 software development. Vito Technology won an Apple Design Award in 2010 for its Star Walk for iPad app. The company consists of two departments: Research & Development Department and Marketing Department with 30 employees in total. Copyright (C) 2016 Vito Technology Inc. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod, and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.