Electronic PictureBooks are part of an expanding library of multimedia publications that highlight the results of contemporary astronomy and planetary science research, particularly images. They are authored by space scientists, engineers, and astronauts and produced as HyperCard stacks that run on any color Macintosh computer. Every Electronic PictureBook contains full color images and informative text and is designed with powerful navigational tools to assist the reader. Electronic PictureBooks are fun to use and we hope you (and your family or students) will be encouraged to try them out. The software runs on any color Macintosh computer and contains full color images and informative text. Many Electronic PictureBook titles currently exist, and the library is growing monthly! Subjects range from geography, to planetary science, to astrophysics, and might include anything from views of our home planet Earth to the latest discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope.

So check them out! All of the Electronic PictureBooks are available free right here on this site! Just click on one of the titles below!

If you want to get a sample of some of the Electronic PictureBooks before downloading them, try downloading the Electronic PictureBook Sampler, an interactive collection of sample pages from most of our Electronic PictureBooks!

Also, be sure to check out our CD-ROM Compilation of Electronic PictureBooks!

Important! HyperCard Required!!

Download a copy of HyperCard Player 2.1.

PlanetQuest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |About | Screenshots | Download|

This Electronic PictureBook describes the history of planetary spacecraft beginning with the early lunar missions in support of the Apollo program to current plans for future missions to Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto. It provides a fascinating survey of the engineering difficulties and political challenges encountered along the way.

Windows on Orion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |About | Screenshots | Download|

When you look up at the stars at night, what do you see? Well, surprisingly little, compared with what is observable throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum, not just in the visible wavelengths. To understand truly the nature of stars and nebulae, it is necessary to study them at these different wavelengths. Using the constellation of Orion as the focal point, this Electronic PictureBook does exactly that, examining Orionós stars and magnificent nebulae as observed at many different wavelengths of light, and comparing what is detectable at each wavelength. It also includes tutorial sections on electromagnetic radiation and star formation, and a descriptive section on the folklore surrounding Orion.

Gems of Hubble 2.0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |About | Screenshots | Download|

Gems of Hubble is a collection of recent images obtained by NASAós Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Topics include the HSTós launch and first servicing mission, stars and star clusters, galaxies and black holes, solar system objects, nebulae, and cosmology.

Comparing Earth & Its Planetary Neighbors. . .|About | Screenshots | Download|

An informal introduction to comparative planetology that compares Earth features to those of other bodies in space, including aspects of their atmosphere, surface detail, and subsurface dynamics.

Other Worlds from Earth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |About | Screenshots | Download|

We learn about NASAós search for other worlds like Earth to discover the origins of our planet and the life it holds. We explore the ideas and issues of origins by taking an imaginary voyage from Earth to another world around a nearby star, aided by a series of paintings by William K. Hartmann, a noted space artist, writer, and planetary scientist. We travel out through the Solar System, looking back towards the Sun, in steps that are powers of ten: 1 AU, 10 AU, 100 AU, etc. Then we turn around in interstellar space, face in the direction of the star-forming region in the constellation Orion, and approach a newly born planetary system. The tutorial explains the scientific background and observational strategies to discover and study planets around other stars.

Apollo 11 at Twenty-Five. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|About | Screenshots | Download|

This Electronic PictureBook was published on the occasion of NASAós 25th celebration of the moment when humans first walked on the Moon. It contains an historical survey of the Apollo program for the period from May 1961, with its announcement by President John F. Kennedy, to December 1972, when the program ended with the flight of Apollo 17. Special emphasis on the Apollo 11 mission.

The Planetary System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|About | Screenshots | Download|

The Planetary System is a pictorial survey of our solar system that includes all nine planets, the Moon, and small bodies. The images it contains were selected for their beauty and for how well they illustrate the wide range of physical and geological features present in the solar system.

The Impact Catastrophe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |About | Screenshots | Download|

This series of seven original paintings by artist and planetary scientist William K. Hartmann depicts the impact and resulting effect of a 10 km asteroid believed to have hit the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico about 65 million years ago. The climatic changes set in motion by the impact are thought to have had a significant role in the extinction of many species at the time, including the dinosaurs.

Endeavour Views the Earth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|About | Screenshots | Download|

Endeavour Views the Earth is a collection of Space Shuttle images of Earthós northern hemisphere. Image captions by NASA astronaut Jay Apt touch upon timely issues in geography, agronomy, geology, meteorology, and environmental science. Linked to The World Factbook.

Volcanic Features of Hawaii and Other Worlds.|About | Screenshots | Download|

This Electronic PictureBook describes and compares Hawaiian volcanoes and volcanic features with features believed to have a similar origin on the Moon, Mars, Venus, and the jovian moon, Io. Accompanying text highlights these comparisons, explains the features, and describes past, current, and planned research by volcanologists. Specific topics include volcanic structures, lava flows, eruption types and resultant land forms, rocks, boulder fields, and radar studies. The glossary is linked to the text.

Magellan Highlights of Venus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|About | Screenshots | Download|

This Electronic PictureBook contains images from the Magellan spacecraftós first 243-day mapping cycle of Venus. An introduction summarizes the most important science findings. Image captions describe both planetary featuresÿVenusian impact craters, mountains, tessera terrain, coronae, arachnoids, volcanoes, channels, and dunesÿand the methods scientists have used to analyze them.

Images of Mars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|About | Screenshots | Download|

Images of Mars is a collection of re-processed photos of the Martian surface taken during the Viking mission. In addition to being an update on U.S. and Russian interest in Mars, the introduction provides a brief look at the broad history of human interest, touching on the early observations of Tycho Brahe, Johann Kepler, Christiaan Huygens, William Herschel, Asaph Hall, and Giovanni Schiaparelli; the imaginative theories of Percival Lowell; and the popular views of science fiction writers Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, and Ray Bradbury.

Scientific Results from the GHRS. . . . . . . . . . . . |About | Screenshots | Download|

Scientific Results from the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph is a collection of images and the spectra obtained with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) during the first years of operation of the Hubble Space Telescope. Captions were authored with the assistance of the GHRS science team. Topics include the northern aurora of Jupiter, Beta Pictoris, Chi Lupi, Alpha Tauri, AU Microscopii, AR Lacertae, Nova Cygni 1992, Zeta Ophiuchi, 3C273, R31, and 30 Doradus.

CD-ROM Compilation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |About|