After some resistance I finally got into the world of smartphones and I quickly clashed with the problem of finding interesting softw…ahem, apps among the immense zoo available. I prepared a selection of 7 interesting (free) apps for Android systems that are somehow related with the topics discussed in this blog or that might be useful to people interested in astronomy. I use 1 to 5 stars to rate the technical level required to use the app: 5 stars is for professional astronomers, 1 star is for kids.
1. Black Hole Calculator (★★★★★)
This app is a very nice calculator that allows you to determine the acceleration of a body around a Kerr-Newman black hole (i.e., the most general type of black hole) given the initial position and velocity. The app provides also a number of other useful quantities like the Christoffel symbols and the metric tensor.
With this app you can finally join the world of BOINC on your Android phone. BOINC is a platform that gives you access to the wonderful world of citizen science, where you can help scientists to make fundamental discoveries thanks to the (unused) computational power of your mobile phone. There are several projects you can join, among which Einstein@home to catch the first ever continuous gravitational waves (most likely coming from fast spinning neutron stars)!
A nice simple app that allows you to visualize an accretion disk around a non-rotating black hole (Schwarzschild black hole). The app allows you to adjust the disk inclination, distance, mass and various parameters to visualize.
If you want to be updated on the latest discoveries in the field of astronomy this is the app for you. ArXiv is the online archive where astronomers (but also physicists and mathematicians) post their most recent papers and conference contributions.
This app, created by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), provides astronomical news for kids aged 8+. It is a fantastic app for learning astronomy and engaging curious children. There are many topics discussed, including black holes, neutron stars and relativistic astrophysics. The app allows you to choose between many different languages.
With this app you will be able to edit your LaTex documents in a browser and share a project with your collaborators. It is indeed possible to edit the same shared document and generate a PDF version for display. Very useful to add the last corrections to your paper!
MERLOT is a great app to search for Open Educational Resources (OER). You can find a lot material related to astrophysics, free books, free online courses and much more. A great app not only if you are interested in astronomy.
Alessandro Patruno is a researcher at the Leiden University working in the field of compact objects (neutron stars, black holes and white dwarfs) and high energy astrophysics. In his blog Astrosplash Alessandro discusses news in his research field and posts updates on his work.