Orrery is a planetarium of the Milky Way built from real stars measured by the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission (Data Release 3). Each star’s orbit was computed in advance on a supercomputer, as a test particle in a smooth model of the Galaxy’s gravity, and is replayed on the visitor’s graphics card across half a billion years.
Select any star to see its details, including its colour, distance and orbit. The motion is a model: the real Galaxy has a bar, spiral arms and gas clouds that this model leaves out. The view shows how the Sun’s neighbourhood shears and mixes over time; it does not predict the exact position of any single star.
Data: ESA Gaia Data Release 3.
Lab demos are working experiments that show the methods behind our products. The same techniques can be built into software for your organisation.
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