Galaxium - Experimental WebGPU space explorer
Show HN: Galaxium, an experimental WebGPU space explorer
Galaxium is an experimental space exploration app that leverages WebGPU, a cutting-edge browser technology, to render immersive celestial scenes directly in your browser. It offers a unique, hardware-accelerated experience for stargazing and navigating the cosmos, pushing the boundaries of what's possible on the web. Currently optimized for up-to-date Chrome, Edge, Safari (macOS 26+), and Firefox on computers with dedicated graphics, Galaxium showcases the future of interactive astronomy. While it requires a modern browser, it provides a glimpse into high-performance 3D rendering without plugins or downloads. For those on unsupported browsers, it recommends stellarium-web.org as an alternative.
Galaxium uses WebGPU, a recent browser technology that isn't available or enabled here.
- bitterblotter
I had to login just to upvote
I thought it was limited to the solar system until I accidentally kept zooming out, and got my mind blown a couple of times. And again when I saw the black hole.
This is ridiculously well made
- RoTor_Ex
Gee... That's fucking insane! I like it!
Btw, how many hours do you have in a day to build a non-commercial beta like this in just a year?! :D
I found several issues:
1. Selecting Voyagers and swam back in time:
• The Sun was leaving a strange trace of light while moving backward through space;
• When voyagers reached the Earth in 1977, they ricocheted from it and flew back into space;
• When I changed the selected target during the time simulation, it stopped and lost its simulation speed
2. I can't move my cursor with arrows or Cmd | Option + <> combinations in the "Ask AI" input field
And a few thoughts from me:
• You missed the favicon =)
• Behavior, when you first should click on the object and then click "center" to fly to it, is a bit counterintuitive and confusing. I personally expected scroll target changes automatically when I clicked to a different object
• What do you think about adding the same scale across the whole Universe (esp. in the local stars group) that the Local Group has with vertical lines from the plane of the ecliptic?
• Should you add a few more DSO objects like TON 618 in the "Featured" catalog?
It’d be interesting to hear how you see this evolving and what the original idea was. Are you trying to compete with other universe exploration apps, or build it more like a browser-based atlas of the Universe?
- sshussain270
This is very cool! Is this tracking real time locations?