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Solar Kingdom version 1.5 has now been officially released. Some of the more significant changes:

Irregular Objects
All large objects in the Solar System are spherical - or very nearly spherical. However, some of the smaller moons and asteroids have irregular shapes. There are now some of these in the simulator. For example below is a picture of Phobos.

[center][img]http://www.silverfrost.com/images/phobos.jpg[/img][/center]

Many more objects
There have been quite a few new moons discovered since the original release of Solar Kingdom. All the ones known about at the time of writing are included - including the new moons discovered by Cassini-Huygens in orbit around Saturn. There are well over 100 objects in the simulation now.

Asteroids
Some of the larger and more significant asteroids are now in the simulator. This includes the newly discovered Kuiper Belt Objects: Sedna and Quaoar.

Extendible
You can now add your own objects into the simulator. You can add objects by entering the orbital details, something which is much easier than it sounds. In addition you can search the Minor Planet database which comes supplied with Solar Kingdom. Adding an asteroid is as simple as typing its name and pressing 'Add'. You can even put asteroids in orbit around other asteroids. In fact the simulator already comes with Ida and Dactyl, the first binary asteroids, included.

Full Screen
Solar Kingdom can now run with the viewer in full screen mode. The result is quite stunning. You have to try it! If you combine full screen mode with the new lazy orbit mode, the results are like watching a movie.

More Precision
The version 1.5 simulator is much more accurate than 1.0. Interestingly no-one complained about the accuracy of the original version...but we knew we could make it better. So we did.

Updated Encyclopedia
The Solar Kingdom encyclopedia is just about the most up-to-date solar system reference. It has been updated with astronomical developments since its first edition.

Tweaks
There are quite a few more tweaks, bells and whistles...but we will let you find them.

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