Maps: NASA Blue Marble, Black Marble, LRO, MESSENGER, Cassini, New Horizons · Mars: NASA/JPL/USGS Viking mosaic, relief from MGS MOLA (NASA/GSFC, 6x vertical exaggeration) · Jupiter: Hubble OPAL 2019, NASA, ESA, A. Simon (GSFC), M.H. Wong (UC Berkeley) (CC BY 4.0), enhanced colour · Sun's limb: NASA/SDO AIA 304 Å · Sun, Saturn, Saturn's rings, Uranus, Neptune, clouds, relief: Solar System Scope (CC BY 4.0) · Moons and small worlds: NASA/JPL/USGS; Io, Ganymede, Titan, Triton via CelestiaContent (CC BY, Askaniy Anpilogov et al.); Mimas, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Ceres, Vesta via Stellarium (CC BY 4.0, Oleg Pluton, FarGetaNik) · Bennu, Ryugu, Itokawa, Eros, Arrokoth: shape models NASA PDS / OSIRIS-REx / NEAR / New Horizons (CC0), Ryugu ISAS/JAXA (CC BY 4.0); maps via CelestiaContent (Askaniy Anpilogov, Roman Tkachenko; Stooke, NASA PDS; CC BY) · Positions of the Sun, Moon and planets: JPL DE440 ephemeris (Park et al. 2021, NASA/JPL), 1800-2100; moons: orbits fitted to JPL Horizons (satellite ephemerides JUP365, SAT441, URA184, NEP098, MAR099, PLU060); other orbits: JPL, Minor Planet Center; asteroids and comets: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database (via KStars) · Spacecraft trajectories: NASA/JPL Horizons · Rotation: IAU WGCCRE · Data: NASA NSSDC
Space Simulator
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3D Star Map: the real stars around the Sun
118,971 stars placed in 3D from their measured distances (Gaia DR3 for nine in ten of them). Fly to any star, look back at the Sun from there, see Orion fall apart from the side, and run time a million years forward or back to watch the constellations drift.
How many stars are in this map, and where do the positions come from?
All 118,971 stars of the AT-HYG v3.2 catalogue's HYG subset: every star in the classic Hipparcos, Yale and Gliese catalogues, with distances and motions updated from ESA's Gaia DR3 for about 90% of them.
What is the nearest star to the Sun?
Proxima Centauri, 4.24 light-years away. Alpha Centauri A and B, the pair it orbits, are 4.37 light-years away.
Do the constellations change?
Yes. Every star moves through space at tens of kilometres per second. Over tens of thousands of years the shapes we know, like the Big Dipper, slowly break up.
What does the Sun look like from Alpha Centauri?
A bright star of about magnitude 0.5 in the constellation Cassiopeia, turning its W into a zigzag of six stars.