3D visualization of the Milky Way galaxy including 100,000 nearby stars for Google Chrome

Posted on Thursday, April 4, 2013 by RICHARD HARRIS, Executive Editor

100,000 Stars is an interactive visualization of the stellar neighborhood created for the Google Chrome web browser. It shows the location of 119,617 nearby stars derived from multiple sources, including the 1989 Hipparcos mission. Zooming in reveals 87 individually identified stars and our solar system. The galaxy view is an artist's rendition based on NGC 1232, a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way.

Instructions: Pan using your mouse and zoom in/out using your touchpad or mouse wheel. Click a star�s name to learn more about it.

Warning: Scientific accuracy is not guaranteed. Please do not use this visualization for interstellar navigation.

Sources:

Programmed by some space enthusiasts at Google.
Music by Sam Hulick, whose work you may have heard in the video game, Mass Effect. The track is titled �In a Strange Land� and is used with his permission.
Galaxy images provided by Wikipedia and ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5m/R.Gendler and A. Hornstrup.
Star renderings derived from Wikipedia
Sun images courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
Star data provided by:
- HYG Database, by Astronomy Nexus
- Gliese/Jahrei� Catalog, by Dr. Wilhelm Gliese and Dr. Hartmut Jahreiss
- Bright Star Catalog (5th edition), by Dr. E. Dorrit Hoffleit and Dr. Wayne H. Warren Jr, and the Department of Astronomy at Yale University
- HIPPARCOS Catalog (3rd Edition) by the European Space Agency

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