The search giant Google has come up with a new way to help kill time, on a stellar scale, quite literally.
Google’s new Chrome experiment ‘100,000 stars’ gives you a stunning view of most stars known to man that are relatively close to Earth. The Milky Way galaxy has over 200 billion stars and the ability to acquire and map every detail is simply impossible. But with the help of various imagery and data from a range of sources, including NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), Google has taken a small step in that direction by plotting the location of the stars closest to our Sun.
“Using your mouse and trackpad, you can zoom in and out to explore our galaxy”, explained Google. “Zooming in reveals the names of the most prominent stars close to our sun- click each name to learn about it and see a digital rendition”.
The experiment uses WebGL, CSS3D, and Web Audio. Sam Hulick, famous for composing the music for the Mass Effect series has provided the music for the experiment. While you may not notice it at first, the music definitely adds a space-exploration, sci-fi feeling to the whole experience.
The “take a tour” button conveniently provides a brief explanation on how to explore the galaxy and takes visitors on a short tour of our galactic surroundings.
“As you explore this experiment, we hope you share our wonder for how large the galaxy really is,” said Google. “It’s incredible to think that this mist of 100,000 measurable starts is a tiny fraction of the sextillions of stars in the broader universe”.
