Interactive stellar map
3D Universe
Explore 117 stars—including all 100 brightest stellar systems seen from Earth. Rotate the view, zoom through the stellar neighbourhood, and select any star for details.
How to read the map
Why the two distance modes look different
Linear preserves proportional distances: a star twice as distant is placed twice as far from the Sun. Because the catalogue spans thousands of light-years while many familiar stars are comparatively nearby, they naturally gather around the centre when the full range is shown. Reduce the maximum distance to open up the solar neighbourhood.
Logarithmic uses a logarithmic distance scale so nearby and distant stars can be explored together. Direction and distance order remain meaningful, but spacing is no longer proportional.
The glowing markers are navigation symbols, not scale models of stellar diameters. Real star radii are far too small compared with the distances between stars to remain visible at this scale; colour reflects approximate surface temperature and marker prominence follows apparent brightness.