Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the extensive amount of jargon used in astronomy? This web site may offer visitors with an easy way to compare astronomy material from different authors. The Astronomy Thesaurus, created by Robyn M. Shobbrook of the Anglo-Australian Observatory and Robert R. Shobbrook of Sydney University, provides a way to standardize the terminology in the field of astronomy....

First, NASA furnishes a fabulous tutorial about the big bang theory and the evolution of the universe (1). Visitors can discover the foundation of the big bang theory, the observational tests, and the limitations and extensions of the theory. The second website, developed by Maxine Phaisalakani at the University of Toronto, introduces in a slide show presentation research that led to the discovery...

Presented by the US Geological Survey, The Chesapeake Meteor Web site chronicles the impact created by the meteor. The site explains how the sixth largest crater on earth was formed and also provides ten related lessons on its activities page. Educators will find lesson plans dealing with graded sediments and impact events, meteor showers, aquifers, Eocene astroblemes, seismographs, growing...

The College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University furnish an online version of Chapter II of Simon Newcomb's astronomy book, where he attempts to explain the laws of phenomena of celestial motions to "the inquiring layman seeking to know something of the heavenly bodies and their relation to the earth". With the help of many sketches, students and educators can learn about the earth, its...

Simeon De Witt's star map has a long and curious history dating all the way back to its completion in 1780. De Witt was a surveyor for George Washington and the Continental Army, and this highly detailed map shows the stars visible from his post in New Jersey. De Witt later said that his work and the time he spent outside watching the stars gave him an appreciation of "the ever shifting scenery of...

Visitors can learn astonishing facts in historical astronomy, astrobiology, astrophysics, space missions, and many more space science topics at this comprehensive website. David Darling, a British astronomer and science writer, provides straightforward explanations of seemingly difficult concepts. In addition to an easily navigable alphabetical list and a keyword search, the encyclopedia is...

The European Space Agency mission, International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL), was developed to gather the Universe's energetic radiation in order to better understand the most violent processes in the Universe. After reading the in-depth descriptions about INTEGRAL, users can learn the latest INTEGRAL news and view the monthly and archived image. Visitors will find plenty of help,...

The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) "is built around a master list of extragalactic objects for which cross-identifications of names have been established, accurate positions and redshifts entered to the extent possible, and basic data collected." The main page has links to objects by name and position, data, literature, tools, additional information, and more. Although a bit confusing to...

NASA is conducting the Kepler Mission to detect "terrestrial planets, that is, rocky and Earth-size, around other stars." Visitors can discover the importance of this mission and its objective as well as learn how extra solar terrestrial planets are discovered and confirmed. Through concise descriptions and informational figures, users can find out how differential photometry, stellar variability,...

The NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) Web site, which is hosted by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is described as a Digital Library for Physics, Astrophysics, and Instrumentation. ADS maintains four bibliographic databases containing more than 3.2 million records that can be searched or browsed by various interfaces including a Journal/ Volume/ Page Service, Table of Contents...