100,000 stars

Today's countdown to the Project Proxima launch introduces 100,000 Stars, an interactive visualization of the stellar neigbourhood created for the Chrome browser. It shows the real location of over 100,000 nearby stars. Zooming in reveals 87 major named stars and our solar system and Oort cloud.  Zooming out reveals an artist's rendition of the whole galaxy.

Launch 100,000 stars now.

The closest stars to the Sun.  Drag, zoom and explore this 3D simulation.

So much to explore.

Our stellar neighbourhood.

An artist's rendition of the galaxy.  Rotate through 3 degrees of freedom.

Some of the 87 named closest stars.  Clicking zooms in to beautiful close-up detail.


From Leeds to Proxima Centauri

Project Proxima is a hypothetical voyage to our nearest stellar neighbour - Proxima Centauri.  The spacecraft, Proxima, can travel at the speed of light and is set to launch in 16 days (on the 1st May 2015).  #ProjectProxima #Science #Space

Followers can track the progress of Proxima's four year voyage on the website and through Proxima's Twitter page @proximaspace.  You can sign-up to become a registered follower to get your name on the website, and receive news via email.

Proxima will travel at the speed of light from Earth to Proxima Centauri taking it on a path that first visits the inner solar system and the sun. It will then continue through the solar system until it is far beyond the outer reaches of the Oort Cloud, the depths of interstellar space and then finally, in four years time, it will reach Proxima Centauri (in 2019).

Time until Launch: