The Milky Way.
From above.
Step back, find the Sun, then zoom in on the positions of stars in our Hipparcos selection.
Loading positions… The galaxy’s background and arms are schematic. Selectable dots correspond to stars whose parallax provides a usable distance. This selection of bright stars covers a small neighbourhood around the Sun; it does not represent all stars in the Milky Way.
Use the wheel or buttons to zoom; drag to move around. Select a star to open its information.
Distances and positions are estimated; the top-down projection overlays stars at different heights. On a touchscreen, pinch with two fingers to zoom. Keyboard: arrows, +, − and Home to return to the galaxy.
Reading the map and its limitations.
Positions, scale and sources
Positions come from J2000 coordinates and Hipparcos parallaxes selected for the planetarium. Only positive parallaxes with relative uncertainty no greater than 20% are inverted into distances. Distances remain estimates; parallax errors are not represented by dot sizes.
Rotation from J2000 to the galactic frame uses Astronomy Engine. The horizontal axis points towards galactic l = 0°, the vertical axis towards l = 90°. The North Galactic Pole faces the observer. The galactic centre is the drawing’s origin; the Sun is placed at X = −8,178 pc, Y = 0. A star’s displayed height uses the galactic plane passing through the Sun.
The adopted Sun–centre distance is the GRAVITY Collaboration (2019) reference, 8,178 pc. The disc of roughly 100,000 light-years, bar and arms provide visual context; their curves are schematic. No measured star population is invented to fill the rest of the galaxy. A sparsely populated region in this selection is not an empty region.
- Hipparcos · ESA 1997, CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO · Credit: ESA
- Astronomy Engine · Don Cross, MIT · EQJ → GAL rotation
- GRAVITY Collaboration (2019) · distance to the galactic centre
- NASA · our location in the Milky Way ; NASA · the scale of galaxies