Free flight

Anywhere in the Atlas, W A S D and the mouse fly you off the path, and B, Esc or a scroll glides you back. It needs a browser with WebGL 2; here is everything it can take you to.

The four galaxies

Real wonders

Gaia BH1 · REAL · ARTIST'S IMPRESSION — The nearest known black hole, dormant; its bending of starlight is simulated El-Badry et al. 2023, “A Sun-like star orbiting a black hole”, MNRAS 518, 1057
3C 273 · REAL · ARTIST'S IMPRESSION — The first quasar identified; its disc and lensing are simulated around a black hole of its measured mass Schmidt 1963, “3C 273: a star-like object with large red-shift”, Nature 197, 1040
Crab Nebula · OBSERVED — The remains of a star seen exploding in the eleventh century, with its pulsar ESA/Hubble, “A giant Hubble mosaic of the Crab Nebula” (heic0515a)
Pillars of Creation · OBSERVED — Columns of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula where new stars form ESA/Hubble, “The Pillars of Creation revisited” (heic1501a)
Voyager 1 · REAL · LIVE POSITION — The most distant human-made object, at its live position, with the Golden Record NASA/JPL Horizons, Voyager 1 (−31), heliocentric state on 2026-10-13 TDB
Wow! signal · UNEXPLAINED — A strong narrow-band radio signal heard once and never again; its two possible directions Big Ear Radio Observatory, “The Wow! signal”
The Swarm · FICTION — Invented for this site: collectors swarming around a star, after Freeman Dyson’s idea Dyson 1960, “Search for artificial stellar sources of infrared radiation”, Science 131, 1667
The Artefact · FICTION — Invented for this site: something that bends starlight outward, as negative mass would Cramer et al. 1995, “Natural wormholes as gravitational lenses”, Phys. Rev. D 51, 3117
The Escort · FICTION — Invented for this site: a craft that keeps its distance and matches your speed (spaceship mode only) Breakthrough Listen (Breakthrough Initiatives)
Sagittarius A* · REAL · ARTIST'S IMPRESSION — The black hole at the centre of the Milky Way; the hot gas around it is simulated, in false colour GRAVITY Collaboration 2022, “Mass distribution in the Galactic Center based on interferometric astrometry of multiple stellar orbits”, A&A 657, L12
TRAPPIST-1 · REAL · ARTIST'S IMPRESSION — A red dwarf with seven Earth-sized planets on their real orbits; their surfaces are invented Agol et al. 2021, “Refining the transit-timing and photometric analysis of TRAPPIST-1”, PSJ 2, 1
An example comet · ILLUSTRATIVE — An illustrative comet drawn with the physics of real tails; not a real object today NASA, “Comets” (how the ion and dust tails form)
Kuiper belt · GENERATED · OBSERVED — The ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune, drawn from the shape of its measured populations NASA, “Kuiper Belt: Facts” (the inner edge near 30 AU, the main region ending around 50 AU)
Our radio signals · REAL · DERIVED — How far the earliest radio broadcasts have travelled, at its true size IEEE Milestone, “Westinghouse Radio Station KDKA, 1920” (Engineering and Technology History Wiki)
Arecibo message · REAL · DERIVED — The picture message sent toward the globular cluster M13, as far as it has travelled The Staff at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center 1975, “The Arecibo message of November, 1974”, Icarus 26, 462
Globular clusters · OBSERVED — Every globular cluster of the Harris catalogue at its measured position and luminosity Harris 1996 (2010 edition), “A new catalog of globular clusters in the Milky Way”, arXiv:1012.3224
Omega Centauri · OBSERVED — The largest globular cluster of the Milky Way, with a black hole at its centre Harris 1996 (2010 edition), “A new catalog of globular clusters in the Milky Way”, arXiv:1012.3224
47 Tucanae · OBSERVED — One of the brightest globular clusters in the sky Harris 1996 (2010 edition), “A new catalog of globular clusters in the Milky Way”, arXiv:1012.3224
M13 · OBSERVED — The globular cluster the Arecibo message was sent toward Harris 1996 (2010 edition), “A new catalog of globular clusters in the Milky Way”, arXiv:1012.3224
M4 · OBSERVED — Among the nearest globular clusters to the Sun Harris 1996 (2010 edition), “A new catalog of globular clusters in the Milky Way”, arXiv:1012.3224
Ceres · REAL · LIVE POSITION — The largest body of the asteroid belt, at its position today NASA/JPL Small-Body Database: C/1995 O1 (Hale–Bopp) and 134340 Pluto, queried 2026-10-14
Pluto · REAL · LIVE POSITION — The best known dwarf planet beyond Neptune, at its position today NASA/JPL Small-Body Database: C/1995 O1 (Hale–Bopp) and 134340 Pluto, queried 2026-10-14
Haumea · REAL · LIVE POSITION — A fast-spinning, egg-shaped dwarf planet with a ring, at its position today NASA/JPL Small-Body Database: C/1995 O1 (Hale–Bopp) and 134340 Pluto, queried 2026-10-14
Makemake · REAL · LIVE POSITION — A dwarf planet of the Kuiper belt, at its position today NASA/JPL Small-Body Database: C/1995 O1 (Hale–Bopp) and 134340 Pluto, queried 2026-10-14
Eris · REAL · LIVE POSITION — A dwarf planet nearly the size of Pluto on a steep, stretched orbit, at its position today NASA/JPL Small-Body Database: C/1995 O1 (Hale–Bopp) and 134340 Pluto, queried 2026-10-14
Sedna · REAL · LIVE POSITION — One of the most distant known bodies of the solar system, at its position today NASA/JPL Small-Body Database: C/1995 O1 (Hale–Bopp) and 134340 Pluto, queried 2026-10-14
M87* · OBSERVED — The first black hole ever imaged, at the heart of the giant galaxy Messier 87 Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration 2019, “First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole”, ApJL 875, L1
Cosmic microwave background · ILLUSTRATIVE — The oldest light, drawn as a generated false-colour pattern at the distance it comes from Fixsen 2009, “The temperature of the cosmic microwave background”, ApJ 707, 916
Hubble’s variable V1 · OBSERVED — The pulsing star on Hubble’s plate of Andromeda whose period gave its distance and made Andromeda a galaxy of its own NASA, “Hubble Views the Star that Changed the Universe” (23 May 2011): V1’s period and Hubble’s plate of 5–6 October 1923
JADES-GS-z14-0 · OBSERVED — Among the most distant galaxies confirmed by a spectrum, at its real direction and comoving distance Carniani et al. 2024, “Spectroscopic confirmation of two luminous galaxies at a redshift of 14”, Nature 633, 318

How the scale works

Within 9.6 million light-years of the Sun the Atlas is drawn to scale: one unit is about 96 light-years, so the whole Local Group fits.

Beyond that, every direction and every apparent size seen from the Sun stays exact while depth is compressed, out to the edge of the observable universe, 46.5 billion light-years away.

Distances are real. Speeds faster than light are fiction.

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