Aurelia
Gas GiantA storm-wrapped giant with amethyst cloud bands and a ring of shattered ice, circling its star once every 84 years.
- 1.9 M⊕
- Ringed
- 9 moons
ExploreThe Infinite Universe
Discover galaxies, stars and cosmic phenomena through immersive interactive experiences.
About
What's out there
Four things the universe does at a scale that's hard to hold in your head.
01
Galaxies
Gravitationally bound islands of stars, gas and dark matter. From majestic spirals to ancient ellipticals, each one holds billions of solar systems.
02
Black Holes
Regions where gravity warps spacetime beyond escape. Supermassive giants anchor entire galaxies, bending light itself around their event horizons.
03
Nebulas
Vast clouds of dust and ionized gases. Stellar nurseries where gravity slowly sculpts collapsing matter into newborn stars.
04
Exoplanets
Worlds orbiting distant suns. Over 5,000 confirmed so far: scorched gas giants, frozen super-Earths, and a few that might just harbor life.
Statistics
The universe in numbers
Best current estimates. Give or take a few billion.
0B+
Galaxies
in the observable universe
0B
Years
since the Big Bang
0T+
Stars
estimated across all galaxies
0%
Dark Matter & Energy
of the universe remains unseen
Timeline
A brief history of everything
- 13.8 billion years ago
Big Bang
Space, time and energy erupt from a single point. Within minutes, the first hydrogen and helium nuclei form in a rapidly cooling universe.
- 13.6 billion years ago
Formation of the Milky Way
Primordial gas clouds collapse and merge, seeding the halo and disk of our home galaxy around a growing supermassive black hole.
- 4.6 billion years ago
Solar System
A shockwave compresses a molecular cloud. The Sun ignites, and leftover dust accretes into planets, moons, comets and asteroids.
- 4.5 billion years ago
Earth
A molten proto-planet cools beneath a young sky. Oceans condense, continents drift, and chemistry edges toward biology.
- Now
Today
A species on a small rocky world builds telescopes and spacecraft, and begins mapping the universe that made it.
Planets
Featured planets
Three made-up worlds, shaded entirely in GLSL. Hover to spin them.
Cryon
Ice WorldAn ocean sealed beneath kilometers of fractured ice. Geysers at its south pole hint at liquid water, and possibly more.
- 0.8 M⊕
- Subsurface ocean
- -180°C
Ember
Lava WorldTidally locked against its red dwarf, its dayside is a sea of molten rock that glows bright enough to be seen light-years away.
- 1.2 M⊕
- Tidally locked
- 1,400°C
Resources
Go further
Interactive maps, planetariums and other genuinely great space projects on the internet.
NASA Eyes
Real-time 3D map of the solar system with every active mission and spacecraft in it.
eyes.nasa.gov
Stellarium Web
A planetarium in the browser: the night sky from wherever you are, right now.
stellarium-web.org
100,000 Stars
A Chrome experiment that lets you fly through our stellar neighborhood.
stars.chromeexperiments.com
ESASky
Interactive sky atlas built on real observations from dozens of space telescopes.
sky.esa.int
Astronomy Picture of the Day
NASA has posted one space photo with a short explanation every day since 1995.
apod.nasa.gov
Solar System Scope
A 3D model of the solar system you can spin, scale and fast-forward.
www.solarsystemscope.com