Visualizations of Space

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16 Cygni AB and recently discovered planet -- with a hypothetical, icy moon that
vaporizes like a comet when the planet approaches 16 Cygni B -- where a red dwarf
star also may be orbiting 16 Cygni A (Heather M. Hauser and Geoffrey W. Marcy, 1999).

Orbit Animations at SolStation.com

Animations of Orbiting Binary Stars and Stellar Evolution

Terry Herter -- an astronomer at Cornell University who is also working on the instrument FORCAST to image star forming regions and other faint objects such as galaxies for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) and on the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) for the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope has developed interactive animations to model the impact of different stellar masses and orbital characteristics on the orbits of binary stars (including radial velocity curves and spectra), orbits and luminosity of eclipsing variables, and the speed and spectral progression of stellar evolution at the following web pages:
Orbiting Binary Stars around a Common Center of Mass

See the interactive animation of Binary Orbits (Java applet) with discussion created by Professors Mike Guidry and Daunt for an astronomy course at the University of Tennessee.

Animations of Planetary Orbits

Sylvain G. Korzennik -- an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics working on the Advanced Fiber Optic Echelle AFOE) spectrometer -- developed the following animations of Solar and Extra-Solar planetary orbits (with additional information, renderings, and short movies) at his web pages: Upsilon Andromedae Gallery; and Animation of Orbits.

Sol System

Upsilon Andromedae System

Other Star Systems

Simulations of Our Solar System

David Seal (a mission planner and engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech) has a web site that generates simulated images of the Sun, planets, and major moons from different perspectives and at different times of the year. Try his Solar System Simulator.

Try the Orbit Viewer, originally written by Osamu Ajiki of AstroArts and modified by Ron Baalke of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to see real-time orbit animations of the planets, and known asteroids, Edgeworth-Kuiper ice bodies, and comets.

Simulations of Extrasolar Planetary Systems and Objects

The late John Whatmough was a programmer and developer of computer-assisted art who died tragically on September 12, 2005, in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park while trying to stop a rolling car with his two-and-a-half-year-old son in the back seat, who survived without injury. Over the past decade, he had developed wonderful "visualizations" of recently discovered extrasolar planetary systems, protoplanetary disks, extragalactic worlds, and Massive Compact Halo Objects (MACHOS), which were admired internationally. While you can, please go to Extrasolar Visions to view John's images and to compare recent astronomical information on these objects at his web site.
Lynette Cook (a science illustrator) has developed spectacular artwork of recently discovered extrasolar planetary systems, life in space, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) effort, and astronomical imagery that are usually finished using traditional art media, after initial computer drafting. Go to Space to view Lynette's images at her web site.
David Hardy (a longtime "space artist") has created some wonderful artwork of known, hypothetical, and imaginary space objects and vistas (including the Solar System and extrasolar planets). Go to the gallery of his AstroArt web site to view his images.
Christoph Kulmann has developed very interesting artwork of recently discovered extrasolar planets and an illustrated discussion of stellar ecospheres. Go to Exoplaneten.de to view Christoph's images.
Walter Myers has developed an extensive gallery of planetary artwork with explanatory notes on hypothetical and real extrasolar planets and on the Solar System and beyond. Go to Computergraphic Vistas to view Walter's images.