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Project Hail Mary – Stellar Navigation Chart

1200 points by speleo 5mo ago

ge96 5mo ago
I am so happy this movie did great, the book was great Similar to me books: Bobiverse, Long Way To A Small Angry Planet I'm not a heavy reader This site is cool, I want to get to know stellar navigation stuff for astrophotography watching a video like this where they pull up star charts to point the telescope at it pretty cool https://www.youtube.com/live/TexqPMQMyZg?si=oEnvrxW21-D0VXGV&t=1665 https://www.youtube.com/live/TexqPMQMyZg?si=oEnvrxW21-D0VXGV... Tangent I'll throw in here, I never get the fabric folding gravity well diagrams as it seems to have a "down" direction, I guess it looks like it's down since it's a slice but the effect is an inward sphere?
- lstodd 5mo ago
  it's like an inverse gas bubble underwater, or a liquid blob in gas in microgravity, but without phase border. see, it's not that easy to explain or visualise.
  - ge96 5mo ago
    Yeah I watched this video recently about slingshotting I can see how it works but yeah https://youtu.be/-CqBP-CtM0c?si=BdCiZwWgpAp07mgs&t=15 https://youtu.be/-CqBP-CtM0c?si=BdCiZwWgpAp07mgs&t=15 It's not like there is a "down" it's just you're looking at it from a top view?
    - lstodd 5mo ago
      There is no down, yes. There is no looking at it from a top view either, since there is no bottom. 3d models like this video are helpful, but one must keep in mind that they are but a slice.
- stevenwoo 5mo ago
  Just a question - why do you classify Long Way with PHM - because there are aliens working with humans? I don’t see any other similarities. The technology IIRC (haven’t read in years) in the Becky Chambers book is closer to Star Trek than reality, and there’s not that much of an overarching plot - which is not to say a book cannot be good without one but it’s a big difference.
  - ge96 5mo ago
    True less technical and space themed so maybe not fitting just a fun easy read Oh yeah another series would be Nick Webb Constitution (Legacy Fleet), I think I got farther into that series but didn't finish it unlike Bobiverse, maybe I did finish this trilogy, I haven't read books in a while honestly. That was a good series though I remember the depiction of the space battles. Trying to be better at being in the moment vs. watching youtube/scrolling a website at the same time kind of thing
    - stevenwoo 5mo ago
      If you like sci fi in general you might ask on /r/printsf on Reddit for recommendations based on what you like. The Libby and Hoopla app also gives recommendations based on what I have already read. I, too, completed Bobiverse but gave up after one Chambers book, YMMV.
- imglorp 5mo ago
  > I guess it looks like it's down since it's a slice but the effect is an inward sphere? Yes, gravity is a vector field: every point in space near a heavy body has a vector pointed at the center of the body with a magnitude of the field strength. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_field Whenever someone uses fabric sheet analogy, they need to shout that the X-Y of the sheet is a 2 dimensional analog of X-Y-Z space, and the Z direction of the sheet is the field magnitude, with the slope indicating direction. All models are wrong, but some are useful (for understanding).
  - ge96 5mo ago
    Other thing is I believe they say gravity is strongest at the center of the sphere/core but I would think the mass is split evenly away from the core eg. maybe 2/3 radius from the center where it's equal mass on each side. But probably doesn't make sense wouldn't be a ball.
    - recursivecaveat 5mo ago
      Since the strength is represented by the slope of the sheet (not the depth), it should still line up. Underneath the ball at the very center the sheet will be level, to match as you say, that the field strength is 0 there. The exact shape will probably be wrong though since it's mostly determined by the shape of the bottom of the object.
    - colechristensen 5mo ago
      Inside a solid uniform sphere, gravity is exactly equal to the gravity of the sphere of material under your feet, as though any mass at any "altitude" higher than you did not exist. It's a pretty standard calculus problem. (the opposite is true, inside a solid hollow shell gravity is exactly zero everywhere)
  - wrs 5mo ago
    The next thing they do after showing you the sheet is to roll a ball around the stretched part to demonstrate an orbit. Explaining how that analogy works starts to take more math than the actual field you’re trying to explain!
- godzillabrennus 5mo ago
  I doubt my opinion will be well-received by all, but I hope that creators like the author of the Bobiverse will be able to, affordably and within their own capabilities, create new forms of content, such as AI-generated long-form content, like entire TV seasons, as the technology matures. That series is fantastic.
  - jamilton 5mo ago
    According to the author, it's been optioned to Lord Miller Productions, the same group that adapted Project Hail Mary.
- Hikikomori 5mo ago
  In the vein of popcorn scifi, expeditionary force books are fun.
  - ge96 5mo ago
    Added to my kindle list, funny I tried to read Gravity's Rainbow as I heard it in a song, I did not get far, on the topic of reading, it is related to rockets but yeah
makach 5mo ago
Elite Dangerous does it better. Pretty but idk.. get the AI generated feeling.
- royal__ 5mo ago
  What specifically about this feels AI generated. It might be, IDK, but I'm not seeing any tells, so wondering if you could expand.
  - hombre_fatal 5mo ago
    I'm not saying it looks AI generated, but AI made it possible to polish things to a level that very few people took the time to ever do themselves. This is a great thing, but it's also a tell since we all saw the UIs people were building by hand pre-AI. That said, I don't think it matters. What matters is whether it's low quality.
- zetalyrae 5mo ago
  The font looks like the same font in every AI-generated visualization like this.
dkobia 5mo ago
Thank you for making this whoever you are. There is a wonderful video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FT-oz9aZU4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FT-oz9aZU4 that visualizes space travel and time dilation in Hail Mary. What I wished I had immediately after watching it was an interactive stellar chart.
- speleo 5mo ago
  You're welcome! I love that channel so much. Their videos and the blog post I link in the about section/citations on the starmap were inspirations for making this.
sigmar 5mo ago
this is cool. My nit pick- aren't the petrova lines curving along the wrong plane? For example, in our solar system the line should start at the sun and should be pointed at where Venus used to be, but then curve towards where Venus is now (until gets to venus). Since the astrophage will course-correct over their journey and stay in the same plane as Venus' orbit.
- slg 5mo ago
  It has been a little while since I read the book, but I think you have the cause of the curve wrong. These things are moving at such a high percentage of the speed of light that there isn't much visible curve from the movement of the planet. The curve is instead caused by them leaving the star at the pole (which leads to a different nitpick of the visualization since the curve isn't shaped to represent that). It's theorized that the Astrophage do this to make is easier to find their way as exiting the plane of the solar system reduces the chances of there being any occultation blocking their view of their destination.
  - sigmar 5mo ago
    oooph, been a while and I don't remember any of those details. Good excuse for me to re-read it!
rdtsc 5mo ago
I can also recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FT-oz9aZU4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FT-oz9aZU4 Time Dilation Visualized (by The Overview Effekt). It talks about the distances and times involved and how time compression and astrophage infection rates work out. As a fan of the book and the movie it was nice to see the actual 3D star chart of everything. (warning: there may be spoilers there)
- titanomachy 5mo ago
  The time dilation aspect of it is cool, but doesn’t discuss how far we are from a propulsion system that could credibly pull this off. Even if we solved fusion it wouldn’t get us remotely close. Maybe if you could somehow produce 50 tonnes of antimatter you could do it. But we have no idea how to produce antimatter efficiently or at scale, and even if we could do it with 100% efficiency, it would take many years of humanity’s current energy budget just to make the antimatter fuel for a single manned trip. To me it seems like we’d need new physics (not just new technology) to have any chance of pulling this stuff off. The book dodges these inconvenient numbers with a bit of a deus ex machina plot device that I won’t spoil here :)
  - rdtsc 5mo ago
    Definitely, the amounts of energy needed are is beyond anything realistic today or anytime soon. It’s still clarified the principle for me that we could in theory at least reach those points in a human lifetime.
waynecochran 5mo ago
Very cool. On Voyager 2 we placed a map on the side of the probe that places the position of our sun based on an array of Pulsar stars (the map was designed by Carl Sagan). I noted in the PHM movie Rocky and Dr Grace made similar 3D maps (I think they were pulsars(?)). I guess pulsars form natural beacons that can be detected at large distances.
- twoodfin 5mo ago
  Pulsars also have a rotational period that provides a reference point for interpreting arithmetic notation.
- shagie 5mo ago
  Cosmos : The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean - https://youtu.be/x-bJLG9_sUg?si=1K96fMX2T9iXu0zA&t=783 https://youtu.be/x-bJLG9_sUg?si=1K96fMX2T9iXu0zA&t=783 For the "how far?" https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2011/04/aa16141-10/aa16141-10.html https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2011/04/aa16141-... We can get timing (rather than imaging) parallax... > We find that with the first method a parallax with an accuracy of 20% or less can be measured up to a maximum distance of 13 kpc, which would include 9000 pulsars. By timing pulsars with the most stable arrival times for the radio emission, parallaxes can be measured for about 3600 ms pulsars up to a distance of 9 kpc with an accuracy of 20%. (one kpc is 3261 light years) Not only can they be detected at large distances, but measurements of how far can be done at greater distances than can be done with imaging ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFMaT9oRbs4&t=608s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFMaT9oRbs4&t=608s ).
- hgoel 5mo ago
  I thought the maps they made were of the neighborhood of stars around Tau Ceti, marking their respective home stars with the petrova line.
  - waynecochran 5mo ago
    I believe you are correct. Way too close to use pulsars…
Deprogrammer9 5mo ago
Movie was awesome & will be watching again.
ggreer 5mo ago
Just FYI the sizes of the planets, stars, and their orbits are not to scale at all. To get an idea of how empty space is, there are 63,360 inches in a mile, and 63,239 astronomical units in a light-year. So if you scaled everything down such that Earth was 1 inch from the Sun, Neptune would be 30 inches away and Alpha Centauri would be 4 miles away. If you were using a 4k display and had the Sun and Alpha Centauri visible at opposite sides of the display, the orbit of Neptune would be in the same pixel as the Sun.
- hnuser123456 5mo ago
  Mercury is orbiting partially inside the Sun, and Jupiter is nearly as wide as the Sun when it should be 1/10 as much, so the planet nodes should be scaled down 10x relative to the Sun. Also, I did a top-down pixel measurement, where I could see the distance to Tau Ceti as well as the orbit of Neptune. The radius of Neptune's orbit was 32px, while the distance to Tau Ceti was 1152px, for a ratio of 36, when in reality, Tau Ceti is 11.9 ly away, while Neptune has an orbit radius of 30 AU, which means Tau Ceti is around 25,000 Neptune orbits away, so the planet orbit scale is too big (or distance to other stars too small) by a factor of ~694 (25000/36) Edit: Since this was top-down, the vertical displacement didn't factor into the distance, which also contributed to Tau Ceti appearing too close on screen, so the error is slightly better than that, maybe a factor of 600. Edit 2: Tau Ceti is rendered at 3.652 pc × 3 world units/pc = 10.956 world units Neptune’s orbit radius is rendered as 30.05 AU × 0.0065 world units/AU = 0.195325 world units The rendered ratio is 10.956 / 0.195325 = 56.09 Neptune-orbit radii The real ratio should be 25,067.5 Neptune-orbit radii The scale error = 25,067.5 / 56.09 = 446.9×
  - Reason077 5mo ago
    Also, since we're nit-picking, the positions of the planets are not being updated in real time. For example, I know that Venus and Jupiter are currently approaching conjunction: there are spectacular views of them both at sunset right now here in the Southern Hemisphere!
  - ForOldHack 5mo ago
    Thanks: All your math checks out.
nekusar 5mo ago
It can be summed up as "Ken Meets Jesus", "Ken Goes to Space", "Ken is a bumbling moron", "Ken's first friend". "Ken's White Savior moment" This appears to be the norm for US based scifi now. Glad I'm watching movies like The Wandering Earth and Alienoid instead. It had a good premise. But it also fell apart immediately. Like, they only sent 3 people, 2 whom died on this UBER CRITICAL SAVE THE PLANET idea? And Ryan Gosling's character is a fucking moron. You're supposed to be a molecular biologist, and you're basically a reddit-gag line? Edit: lol -4 , like seriously, its a pretty bad show. I listed movies I compare it to. But no I get shit like "You must be fun at parties." Personal attacks, sigh.
- TwoNineA 5mo ago
  You must be fun at parties.
- lstodd 5mo ago
  As a european arthouse cinema snob I must say Gosling would have made a nice stand-in for Rocco Siffredi. Maybe.
- tantalor 5mo ago
  > White Savior moment ???
  - rpmisms 5mo ago
    White people doing anything good is actually bad. Duh. /s, but I think I'm accurately describing the viewpoint you're responding to.
    - lazide 5mo ago
      It’s a description of a common Hollywood trope (or used to be), like the ‘magical negro’ [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro]. Hard not to see once you know about them, and they are indeed common. But what should replace it? Good Nuanced writing? Good luck with that!
    - 5mo ago
TeaVMFan 5mo ago
For other software engineers thinking of following in Andy Weir's footsteps and writing a novel, I put together my guide to self-publishing using software tools and techniques here: https://frequal.com/forwriters/ https://frequal.com/forwriters/
- Esophagus4 5mo ago
  Didn’t know he was a programmer!
retrocryptid 5mo ago
NICE!
V__ 5mo ago
"Thumbs" down
- IdiotSavage 5mo ago
  Amaze!
- staindk 5mo ago
  Fist my bump
- elteto 5mo ago
  You mean up. Question.
Lapsa 5mo ago
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gatkinso 5mo ago
Pretty cool, I would suggest removing the z axis grids. Finding them very distracting
VikingCoder 5mo ago
I'm at the point where if there's a computer display, or 3D model, or any asset in a movie, I want there to be a Kickstarter to pay the producers to open source the original assets. Even if it's a super restrictive license. I want all of the War Games original graphics. I know people have come a long way. But I want all of them. The "Hackers" movie. "Sneakers". "The Matrix". These individual assets deserve to be preserved! They're iconic. They're art, in their own rights!
xixixao 5mo ago
This is so beautiful, this thread doesn't have enough praise! It's not easy to get this "right". Lovely!
- speleo 5mo ago
  Thank you!
cheschire 5mo ago
Glad to see it includes Wolf 359. Edit: oh interesting. Apparently it was mentioned in the book as being affected by the astrophage. I forgot that tidbit and thought it was just a Star Trek reference.
- pavel_lishin 5mo ago
  Yeah, and it's one of the nearby stars in reality. It's also sort of the subject - and title! - of this great short story: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/macleod_12_17_reprint/ https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/macleod_12_17_reprint/
jimnotgym 5mo ago
I had sudden memories of playing Frontier: Elite 2. I wanted to go to Sol, buy luxury goods...and take them to Barnards Star
- maniacalrobot 5mo ago
  Yep, quick trip in your panther clipper to ross 154, park up and buy everything on the planet.
- alexfoo 5mo ago
  I have a dim memory that one of my A-Level physics teachers (David Massey) was credited as a consultant on the Newtonian physics in F:E2. The game came out at the start of my upper-sixth year so it often came up during his classes.
- mr_toad 5mo ago
  I have memories of using a hex editor to edit the save file to get enough money to buy a docking computer because even as a kid my technical abilities were much better than my hand eye coordination.
speleo 5mo ago
Hi there! This is Val, I made the star chart. There's a little "about" blurb you can open in a modal on the site, but I wanted to mention that this demo uses the amazing GAIA DR3 dataset from ESA. I have a Python script that renders all 1.8+ billion stars into custom images, which is what I used for the skybox. The star positions and colors all use the GAIA data (save for a few bright stars not in the set). The data is amazing, and if you have any interest in doing some fun projects with open data I recommend checking it out: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dr3 https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dr3
- asabla 5mo ago
  Super cool! how long did it take to generate all those custom images?
  - speleo 5mo ago
    Thanks! On my desktop it takes around 20 minutes to generate a full sky render with 1.8 billion stars (down to around 22 magnitude).
- codesnik 5mo ago
  but why solar system is so out of scale?
  - kridsdale1 5mo ago
    Because it’s more cool and important.
    - Oarch 5mo ago
      Honestly, I'm biased but I think it's the best one.
      - tialaramex 5mo ago
        The damp rock is pretty and compatible with life. 10/10 would inhabit again.
royal__ 5mo ago
Love it. The grid is cool but I think it needs to be more transparent.
arkaic 5mo ago
Anyone with a gaming rig and an interest in scale of a galaxy should check out elite dangerous.
- ge96 5mo ago
  Space engine too
hotsalad 5mo ago
Looks nice, but is it finished? I don't see a skybox or any of the more detailed information mentioned in the "about" dialog, and I don't see any effect from clicking the buttons along the top. I allowed WebGL and disabled Enhanced Tracking Protection and my adblocker, and still only the star labels appear.
proton_9 5mo ago
This was so mesmerising! Will show this to my nieces when they come visit. Kudos!
mndrhdd 5mo ago
cool project
mndrhdd 5mo ago
Cool project
ianferrel 5mo ago
Why is the path curved at the start?
- voxleone 5mo ago
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didgetmaster 5mo ago
Wow. I knew that astronomers had mapped and measured a large number of stars in our galaxy; but I had no idea that the number was close to 2 billion.
deleted 5mo ago
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paol_taja 5mo ago
Why does it show the asteroid belt and not the Kuiper belt?
t3estabc 5mo ago
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beepbooptheory 5mo ago
If, like me, you have an older android and are running Firefox, do not open this site!
malbs 5mo ago
This is great. Nice work. The galaxy explorer/map in Elite: Dangerous is pretty good, I wish they would produce a stand-alone application of just the galaxy map, whether it's even close to correct or not, who knows, but it's enjoyable just to pretend you can move instantly between star systems and go exploringthe galaxy
nan-pova 5mo ago
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ceheaaf 5mo ago
For anyone who enjoys this, exploration in "Elite: Dangerous" (for which you need to be neither elite nor dangerous, exploration is peaceful) might be enjoyable for you as well. From the wiki: Elite Dangerous has a 1:1 scale simulation of the Milky Way galaxy based on real-life scientific principles, scientific data and theories. It includes around 400 billion star systems, modeled on actual galactic charts. Planets and moons rotate and orbit with 1:1 scale in real-time, thus constantly changing a system's environment https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Galaxy https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Galaxy
- tenuousemphasis 5mo ago
  Elite would be a great game if it wasn't for the frustrating and terrible game design.
- hgoel 5mo ago
  It's been a long time since I played, but I don't recall the motion of the planets mattering much. Supercruise lets you move fast enough that planets and moons that move enough to be noticeable are very easy to get to regardless.
  - ceheaaf 5mo ago
    It watching the starscape change around me as I jumped from system to system, actually seeing formations and nebulae in the distance and being able to move toward, around, into them, which made it feel alive to me. I agree the planets moving doesn't really matter on a gameplay timescale. I was completely immersed - it was a good way to spend a few days during lockdowns :)
    - hgoel 5mo ago
      Ah yeah, the starscape changing was very cool, being able to actually go to the Pleiades or to various nebulae also caused me to better understand where different things are relative to each other in the night sky.
a1o 5mo ago
This is pretty cool. Has anyone ever seen a diy star projector for the home? Most of these toy star projectors like the Sega Homestar require placing the projector at the center of the room to point up. At the same time most of the small active projectors (like for movies) require a screen for the image to be better seen (they aren’t very bright). Ideally I would like something that could autocorrect the dimensions of things on the surface, so it would project distorted in a way that it would visually look non-distorted and also I would be looking for the cheapest projector that still manage a good bright for stars during the night, without requiring to put a screen on the home ceiling. I’ve seen proper star projectors from Zeiss but my ceiling is not a dome - plus expensive and requires infinite amounts of power..
aslatter 5mo ago
What is this supposed to be about? The link looks like some sort of star-chart, but I don't see where to get an explanation.
- IAmBroom 4mo ago
  A star-chart that is part of the scene furniture in the popular movie "Project Hail Mary".
guelo 5mo ago
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md224 5mo ago
If you like space visualizers, NASA has a cool one: https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/ https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/
dwheeler 5mo ago
Those interested in this might also like my "Project Hail Mary Stellar Map" at: https://dwheeler.com/essays/project-hail-mary-map.html https://dwheeler.com/essays/project-hail-mary-map.html My page shows a stellar map (from the viewpoint of Polaris) and a sky chart showing the key stars from Earth's viewpoint. Source code (MIT license for my stuff) is at: https://github.com/david-a-wheeler/plot-stars https://github.com/david-a-wheeler/plot-stars
- speleo 5mo ago
  Thank you so much for the blog post! I credited you in the about page, I used your charts as reference for the Astrophage infection graph view with the Petrova mode. I shared your blog with my friends, it was a great read.
  - dwheeler 5mo ago
    Thanks for the credit, I appreciate it! Glad it was helpful. I wouldn't call it a "blog post" though, it's simply an essay. I update my essay whenever I decide it needs updating, and "blog posts" are usually chronological and fixed in time once posted. Take care!
JoeDaDude 5mo ago
Cool! How would navigation actually work? Dead reckoning? Inertial? Stellar reference? Pulsar navigation? Also, the dashed red line is --- SPOILER ALERT! ---- only part of the trajectory in the film, as there is another leg of the voyage not shown.
jinushaun 5mo ago
This is amazing and even works on a phone. Controls are intuitive and no bugs or glitches. Incredible.
addybojangles 5mo ago
Super cool, I'm like 2 hours away from finishing the audiobook and it has been STELLAR (had to).
sidharthshrvstv 5mo ago
That is super cool!
tjpnz 5mo ago
Moving up or down relative to the Solar System's plane takes an insane amount of Delta V and with our technology would require getting a gravity assist from the Sun. But with astrophage that problem goes away.
Testuser8403 5mo ago
This is a test comment
multimax 5mo ago
Awesome work!
xiaoluolyg 5mo ago
really cool, can we hot-plug in our own map?
martzoukos 5mo ago
Oh, that doesn't seem so far
snazarov92 5mo ago
Nice! I love the film
mervinbratic 5mo ago
Really cool!
_joel 5mo ago
I started to watch the film last night but only got a bit into it. Feels basically like a "Sunshine" ripoff to me but I'll watch the rest tonight.
- lwhi 5mo ago
  I found it annoying .. but I know lots of people who liked it.
zombot 5mo ago
Are the Pfhor still engaged at Tau Ceti? Is there a bus route to Wolf 359? I have so many questions.
light_tech 5mo ago
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indianbunghole 5mo ago
Project Hail India – Restroom Navigation Chart
tuvix 5mo ago
Coming to this thread late but this makes me want to do a star trek one! Going to be way more difficult to parse through all the competing references to location and distance but I guess we’ll see how big of a trekky I am
AlexWasHeree 5mo ago
very cool concept
killjoywashere 5mo ago
Where is the Petrova line?!
kittikitti 5mo ago
This is wonderful, I appreciate the share! This is an incredible simulation based on real-world data. I haven't seen the movie, but I might get it from P2P, are there any scenes that would be enhanced if I pull this up on my phone?
sonnyproto 5mo ago
This movie is one of the greatest movies of all time
KetoManx64 5mo ago
What a fantastic visualization. I've read through the Bobiverse series twice at this point and remember all these different star systems from the books (Epsilon Eridani,Tau Ceti, Tau Ceti, etc,) but I've never seen a visualization of where they're located and didn't realize just how much I've wanted something like this until I saw it.
mujib77 5mo ago
Very Cool! What was the hardest part creating it?
xtiansimon 5mo ago
Looks like the desktop game Homeworld. (One of my all-time favs.)
mcswell 4mo ago
On Vivaldi (a chromium-based browser), it just hangs at the initialization phase. I tried it on Firefox, and of course it comes right up.

1200 points by speleo 5mo ago

ge96 5mo ago

I am so happy this movie did great, the book was great Similar to me books: Bobiverse, Long Way To A Small Angry Planet I'm not a heavy reader This site is cool, I want to get to know stellar navigation stuff for astrophotography watching a video like this where they pull up star charts to point the telescope at it pretty cool https://www.youtube.com/live/TexqPMQMyZg?si=oEnvrxW21-D0VXGV&t=1665 https://www.youtube.com/live/TexqPMQMyZg?si=oEnvrxW21-D0VXGV... Tangent I'll throw in here, I never get the fabric folding gravity well diagrams as it seems to have a "down" direction, I guess it looks like it's down since it's a slice but the effect is an inward sphere?

lstodd 5mo ago
it's like an inverse gas bubble underwater, or a liquid blob in gas in microgravity, but without phase border. see, it's not that easy to explain or visualise.
- ge96 5mo ago
  Yeah I watched this video recently about slingshotting I can see how it works but yeah https://youtu.be/-CqBP-CtM0c?si=BdCiZwWgpAp07mgs&t=15 https://youtu.be/-CqBP-CtM0c?si=BdCiZwWgpAp07mgs&t=15 It's not like there is a "down" it's just you're looking at it from a top view?
  - lstodd 5mo ago
    There is no down, yes. There is no looking at it from a top view either, since there is no bottom. 3d models like this video are helpful, but one must keep in mind that they are but a slice.
stevenwoo 5mo ago
Just a question - why do you classify Long Way with PHM - because there are aliens working with humans? I don’t see any other similarities. The technology IIRC (haven’t read in years) in the Becky Chambers book is closer to Star Trek than reality, and there’s not that much of an overarching plot - which is not to say a book cannot be good without one but it’s a big difference.
- ge96 5mo ago
  True less technical and space themed so maybe not fitting just a fun easy read Oh yeah another series would be Nick Webb Constitution (Legacy Fleet), I think I got farther into that series but didn't finish it unlike Bobiverse, maybe I did finish this trilogy, I haven't read books in a while honestly. That was a good series though I remember the depiction of the space battles. Trying to be better at being in the moment vs. watching youtube/scrolling a website at the same time kind of thing
  - stevenwoo 5mo ago
    If you like sci fi in general you might ask on /r/printsf on Reddit for recommendations based on what you like. The Libby and Hoopla app also gives recommendations based on what I have already read. I, too, completed Bobiverse but gave up after one Chambers book, YMMV.
imglorp 5mo ago
> I guess it looks like it's down since it's a slice but the effect is an inward sphere? Yes, gravity is a vector field: every point in space near a heavy body has a vector pointed at the center of the body with a magnitude of the field strength. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_field Whenever someone uses fabric sheet analogy, they need to shout that the X-Y of the sheet is a 2 dimensional analog of X-Y-Z space, and the Z direction of the sheet is the field magnitude, with the slope indicating direction. All models are wrong, but some are useful (for understanding).
- ge96 5mo ago
  Other thing is I believe they say gravity is strongest at the center of the sphere/core but I would think the mass is split evenly away from the core eg. maybe 2/3 radius from the center where it's equal mass on each side. But probably doesn't make sense wouldn't be a ball.
  - recursivecaveat 5mo ago
    Since the strength is represented by the slope of the sheet (not the depth), it should still line up. Underneath the ball at the very center the sheet will be level, to match as you say, that the field strength is 0 there. The exact shape will probably be wrong though since it's mostly determined by the shape of the bottom of the object.
  - colechristensen 5mo ago
    Inside a solid uniform sphere, gravity is exactly equal to the gravity of the sphere of material under your feet, as though any mass at any "altitude" higher than you did not exist. It's a pretty standard calculus problem. (the opposite is true, inside a solid hollow shell gravity is exactly zero everywhere)
- wrs 5mo ago
  The next thing they do after showing you the sheet is to roll a ball around the stretched part to demonstrate an orbit. Explaining how that analogy works starts to take more math than the actual field you’re trying to explain!
godzillabrennus 5mo ago
I doubt my opinion will be well-received by all, but I hope that creators like the author of the Bobiverse will be able to, affordably and within their own capabilities, create new forms of content, such as AI-generated long-form content, like entire TV seasons, as the technology matures. That series is fantastic.
- jamilton 5mo ago
  According to the author, it's been optioned to Lord Miller Productions, the same group that adapted Project Hail Mary.
Hikikomori 5mo ago
In the vein of popcorn scifi, expeditionary force books are fun.
- ge96 5mo ago
  Added to my kindle list, funny I tried to read Gravity's Rainbow as I heard it in a song, I did not get far, on the topic of reading, it is related to rockets but yeah

makach 5mo ago

Elite Dangerous does it better. Pretty but idk.. get the AI generated feeling.

royal__ 5mo ago
What specifically about this feels AI generated. It might be, IDK, but I'm not seeing any tells, so wondering if you could expand.
- hombre_fatal 5mo ago
  I'm not saying it looks AI generated, but AI made it possible to polish things to a level that very few people took the time to ever do themselves. This is a great thing, but it's also a tell since we all saw the UIs people were building by hand pre-AI. That said, I don't think it matters. What matters is whether it's low quality.
zetalyrae 5mo ago
The font looks like the same font in every AI-generated visualization like this.

dkobia 5mo ago

Thank you for making this whoever you are. There is a wonderful video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FT-oz9aZU4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FT-oz9aZU4 that visualizes space travel and time dilation in Hail Mary. What I wished I had immediately after watching it was an interactive stellar chart.

speleo 5mo ago
You're welcome! I love that channel so much. Their videos and the blog post I link in the about section/citations on the starmap were inspirations for making this.

sigmar 5mo ago

this is cool. My nit pick- aren't the petrova lines curving along the wrong plane? For example, in our solar system the line should start at the sun and should be pointed at where Venus used to be, but then curve towards where Venus is now (until gets to venus). Since the astrophage will course-correct over their journey and stay in the same plane as Venus' orbit.

slg 5mo ago
It has been a little while since I read the book, but I think you have the cause of the curve wrong. These things are moving at such a high percentage of the speed of light that there isn't much visible curve from the movement of the planet. The curve is instead caused by them leaving the star at the pole (which leads to a different nitpick of the visualization since the curve isn't shaped to represent that). It's theorized that the Astrophage do this to make is easier to find their way as exiting the plane of the solar system reduces the chances of there being any occultation blocking their view of their destination.
- sigmar 5mo ago
  oooph, been a while and I don't remember any of those details. Good excuse for me to re-read it!

rdtsc 5mo ago

I can also recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FT-oz9aZU4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FT-oz9aZU4 Time Dilation Visualized (by The Overview Effekt). It talks about the distances and times involved and how time compression and astrophage infection rates work out. As a fan of the book and the movie it was nice to see the actual 3D star chart of everything. (warning: there may be spoilers there)

titanomachy 5mo ago
The time dilation aspect of it is cool, but doesn’t discuss how far we are from a propulsion system that could credibly pull this off. Even if we solved fusion it wouldn’t get us remotely close. Maybe if you could somehow produce 50 tonnes of antimatter you could do it. But we have no idea how to produce antimatter efficiently or at scale, and even if we could do it with 100% efficiency, it would take many years of humanity’s current energy budget just to make the antimatter fuel for a single manned trip. To me it seems like we’d need new physics (not just new technology) to have any chance of pulling this stuff off. The book dodges these inconvenient numbers with a bit of a deus ex machina plot device that I won’t spoil here :)
- rdtsc 5mo ago
  Definitely, the amounts of energy needed are is beyond anything realistic today or anytime soon. It’s still clarified the principle for me that we could in theory at least reach those points in a human lifetime.

waynecochran 5mo ago

Very cool. On Voyager 2 we placed a map on the side of the probe that places the position of our sun based on an array of Pulsar stars (the map was designed by Carl Sagan). I noted in the PHM movie Rocky and Dr Grace made similar 3D maps (I think they were pulsars(?)). I guess pulsars form natural beacons that can be detected at large distances.

twoodfin 5mo ago
Pulsars also have a rotational period that provides a reference point for interpreting arithmetic notation.
shagie 5mo ago
Cosmos : The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean - https://youtu.be/x-bJLG9_sUg?si=1K96fMX2T9iXu0zA&t=783 https://youtu.be/x-bJLG9_sUg?si=1K96fMX2T9iXu0zA&t=783 For the "how far?" https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2011/04/aa16141-10/aa16141-10.html https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2011/04/aa16141-... We can get timing (rather than imaging) parallax... > We find that with the first method a parallax with an accuracy of 20% or less can be measured up to a maximum distance of 13 kpc, which would include 9000 pulsars. By timing pulsars with the most stable arrival times for the radio emission, parallaxes can be measured for about 3600 ms pulsars up to a distance of 9 kpc with an accuracy of 20%. (one kpc is 3261 light years) Not only can they be detected at large distances, but measurements of how far can be done at greater distances than can be done with imaging ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFMaT9oRbs4&t=608s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFMaT9oRbs4&t=608s ).
hgoel 5mo ago
I thought the maps they made were of the neighborhood of stars around Tau Ceti, marking their respective home stars with the petrova line.
- waynecochran 5mo ago
  I believe you are correct. Way too close to use pulsars…

Deprogrammer9 5mo ago

Movie was awesome & will be watching again.

ggreer 5mo ago

Just FYI the sizes of the planets, stars, and their orbits are not to scale at all. To get an idea of how empty space is, there are 63,360 inches in a mile, and 63,239 astronomical units in a light-year. So if you scaled everything down such that Earth was 1 inch from the Sun, Neptune would be 30 inches away and Alpha Centauri would be 4 miles away. If you were using a 4k display and had the Sun and Alpha Centauri visible at opposite sides of the display, the orbit of Neptune would be in the same pixel as the Sun.

hnuser123456 5mo ago
Mercury is orbiting partially inside the Sun, and Jupiter is nearly as wide as the Sun when it should be 1/10 as much, so the planet nodes should be scaled down 10x relative to the Sun. Also, I did a top-down pixel measurement, where I could see the distance to Tau Ceti as well as the orbit of Neptune. The radius of Neptune's orbit was 32px, while the distance to Tau Ceti was 1152px, for a ratio of 36, when in reality, Tau Ceti is 11.9 ly away, while Neptune has an orbit radius of 30 AU, which means Tau Ceti is around 25,000 Neptune orbits away, so the planet orbit scale is too big (or distance to other stars too small) by a factor of ~694 (25000/36) Edit: Since this was top-down, the vertical displacement didn't factor into the distance, which also contributed to Tau Ceti appearing too close on screen, so the error is slightly better than that, maybe a factor of 600. Edit 2: Tau Ceti is rendered at 3.652 pc × 3 world units/pc = 10.956 world units Neptune’s orbit radius is rendered as 30.05 AU × 0.0065 world units/AU = 0.195325 world units The rendered ratio is 10.956 / 0.195325 = 56.09 Neptune-orbit radii The real ratio should be 25,067.5 Neptune-orbit radii The scale error = 25,067.5 / 56.09 = 446.9×
- Reason077 5mo ago
  Also, since we're nit-picking, the positions of the planets are not being updated in real time. For example, I know that Venus and Jupiter are currently approaching conjunction: there are spectacular views of them both at sunset right now here in the Southern Hemisphere!
- ForOldHack 5mo ago
  Thanks: All your math checks out.

nekusar 5mo ago

It can be summed up as "Ken Meets Jesus", "Ken Goes to Space", "Ken is a bumbling moron", "Ken's first friend". "Ken's White Savior moment" This appears to be the norm for US based scifi now. Glad I'm watching movies like The Wandering Earth and Alienoid instead. It had a good premise. But it also fell apart immediately. Like, they only sent 3 people, 2 whom died on this UBER CRITICAL SAVE THE PLANET idea? And Ryan Gosling's character is a fucking moron. You're supposed to be a molecular biologist, and you're basically a reddit-gag line? Edit: lol -4 , like seriously, its a pretty bad show. I listed movies I compare it to. But no I get shit like "You must be fun at parties." Personal attacks, sigh.

TwoNineA 5mo ago
You must be fun at parties.
lstodd 5mo ago
As a european arthouse cinema snob I must say Gosling would have made a nice stand-in for Rocco Siffredi. Maybe.
tantalor 5mo ago
> White Savior moment ???
- rpmisms 5mo ago
  White people doing anything good is actually bad. Duh. /s, but I think I'm accurately describing the viewpoint you're responding to.
  - lazide 5mo ago
    It’s a description of a common Hollywood trope (or used to be), like the ‘magical negro’ [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro]. Hard not to see once you know about them, and they are indeed common. But what should replace it? Good Nuanced writing? Good luck with that!
  - 5mo ago

TeaVMFan 5mo ago

For other software engineers thinking of following in Andy Weir's footsteps and writing a novel, I put together my guide to self-publishing using software tools and techniques here: https://frequal.com/forwriters/ https://frequal.com/forwriters/

Esophagus4 5mo ago
Didn’t know he was a programmer!

retrocryptid 5mo ago

NICE!

V__ 5mo ago

"Thumbs" down

IdiotSavage 5mo ago
Amaze!
staindk 5mo ago
Fist my bump
elteto 5mo ago
You mean up. Question.

Lapsa 5mo ago

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gatkinso 5mo ago

Pretty cool, I would suggest removing the z axis grids. Finding them very distracting

VikingCoder 5mo ago

I'm at the point where if there's a computer display, or 3D model, or any asset in a movie, I want there to be a Kickstarter to pay the producers to open source the original assets. Even if it's a super restrictive license. I want all of the War Games original graphics. I know people have come a long way. But I want all of them. The "Hackers" movie. "Sneakers". "The Matrix". These individual assets deserve to be preserved! They're iconic. They're art, in their own rights!

xixixao 5mo ago

This is so beautiful, this thread doesn't have enough praise! It's not easy to get this "right". Lovely!

speleo 5mo ago
Thank you!

cheschire 5mo ago

Glad to see it includes Wolf 359. Edit: oh interesting. Apparently it was mentioned in the book as being affected by the astrophage. I forgot that tidbit and thought it was just a Star Trek reference.

pavel_lishin 5mo ago
Yeah, and it's one of the nearby stars in reality. It's also sort of the subject - and title! - of this great short story: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/macleod_12_17_reprint/ https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/macleod_12_17_reprint/

jimnotgym 5mo ago

I had sudden memories of playing Frontier: Elite 2. I wanted to go to Sol, buy luxury goods...and take them to Barnards Star

maniacalrobot 5mo ago
Yep, quick trip in your panther clipper to ross 154, park up and buy everything on the planet.
alexfoo 5mo ago
I have a dim memory that one of my A-Level physics teachers (David Massey) was credited as a consultant on the Newtonian physics in F:E2. The game came out at the start of my upper-sixth year so it often came up during his classes.
mr_toad 5mo ago
I have memories of using a hex editor to edit the save file to get enough money to buy a docking computer because even as a kid my technical abilities were much better than my hand eye coordination.

speleo 5mo ago

Hi there! This is Val, I made the star chart. There's a little "about" blurb you can open in a modal on the site, but I wanted to mention that this demo uses the amazing GAIA DR3 dataset from ESA. I have a Python script that renders all 1.8+ billion stars into custom images, which is what I used for the skybox. The star positions and colors all use the GAIA data (save for a few bright stars not in the set). The data is amazing, and if you have any interest in doing some fun projects with open data I recommend checking it out: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dr3 https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dr3

asabla 5mo ago
Super cool! how long did it take to generate all those custom images?
- speleo 5mo ago
  Thanks! On my desktop it takes around 20 minutes to generate a full sky render with 1.8 billion stars (down to around 22 magnitude).
codesnik 5mo ago
but why solar system is so out of scale?
- kridsdale1 5mo ago
  Because it’s more cool and important.
  - Oarch 5mo ago
    Honestly, I'm biased but I think it's the best one.
    - tialaramex 5mo ago
      The damp rock is pretty and compatible with life. 10/10 would inhabit again.

royal__ 5mo ago

Love it. The grid is cool but I think it needs to be more transparent.

arkaic 5mo ago

Anyone with a gaming rig and an interest in scale of a galaxy should check out elite dangerous.

ge96 5mo ago
Space engine too

hotsalad 5mo ago

Looks nice, but is it finished? I don't see a skybox or any of the more detailed information mentioned in the "about" dialog, and I don't see any effect from clicking the buttons along the top. I allowed WebGL and disabled Enhanced Tracking Protection and my adblocker, and still only the star labels appear.

proton_9 5mo ago

This was so mesmerising! Will show this to my nieces when they come visit. Kudos!

mndrhdd 5mo ago

cool project

mndrhdd 5mo ago

Cool project

ianferrel 5mo ago

Why is the path curved at the start?

voxleone 5mo ago
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didgetmaster 5mo ago

Wow. I knew that astronomers had mapped and measured a large number of stars in our galaxy; but I had no idea that the number was close to 2 billion.

deleted 5mo ago

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paol_taja 5mo ago

Why does it show the asteroid belt and not the Kuiper belt?

t3estabc 5mo ago

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beepbooptheory 5mo ago

If, like me, you have an older android and are running Firefox, do not open this site!

malbs 5mo ago

This is great. Nice work. The galaxy explorer/map in Elite: Dangerous is pretty good, I wish they would produce a stand-alone application of just the galaxy map, whether it's even close to correct or not, who knows, but it's enjoyable just to pretend you can move instantly between star systems and go exploringthe galaxy

nan-pova 5mo ago

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ceheaaf 5mo ago

For anyone who enjoys this, exploration in "Elite: Dangerous" (for which you need to be neither elite nor dangerous, exploration is peaceful) might be enjoyable for you as well. From the wiki: Elite Dangerous has a 1:1 scale simulation of the Milky Way galaxy based on real-life scientific principles, scientific data and theories. It includes around 400 billion star systems, modeled on actual galactic charts. Planets and moons rotate and orbit with 1:1 scale in real-time, thus constantly changing a system's environment https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Galaxy https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Galaxy

tenuousemphasis 5mo ago
Elite would be a great game if it wasn't for the frustrating and terrible game design.
hgoel 5mo ago
It's been a long time since I played, but I don't recall the motion of the planets mattering much. Supercruise lets you move fast enough that planets and moons that move enough to be noticeable are very easy to get to regardless.
- ceheaaf 5mo ago
  It watching the starscape change around me as I jumped from system to system, actually seeing formations and nebulae in the distance and being able to move toward, around, into them, which made it feel alive to me. I agree the planets moving doesn't really matter on a gameplay timescale. I was completely immersed - it was a good way to spend a few days during lockdowns :)
  - hgoel 5mo ago
    Ah yeah, the starscape changing was very cool, being able to actually go to the Pleiades or to various nebulae also caused me to better understand where different things are relative to each other in the night sky.

a1o 5mo ago

This is pretty cool. Has anyone ever seen a diy star projector for the home? Most of these toy star projectors like the Sega Homestar require placing the projector at the center of the room to point up. At the same time most of the small active projectors (like for movies) require a screen for the image to be better seen (they aren’t very bright). Ideally I would like something that could autocorrect the dimensions of things on the surface, so it would project distorted in a way that it would visually look non-distorted and also I would be looking for the cheapest projector that still manage a good bright for stars during the night, without requiring to put a screen on the home ceiling. I’ve seen proper star projectors from Zeiss but my ceiling is not a dome - plus expensive and requires infinite amounts of power..

aslatter 5mo ago

What is this supposed to be about? The link looks like some sort of star-chart, but I don't see where to get an explanation.

IAmBroom 4mo ago
A star-chart that is part of the scene furniture in the popular movie "Project Hail Mary".

guelo 5mo ago

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md224 5mo ago

If you like space visualizers, NASA has a cool one: https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/ https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/

dwheeler 5mo ago

Those interested in this might also like my "Project Hail Mary Stellar Map" at: https://dwheeler.com/essays/project-hail-mary-map.html https://dwheeler.com/essays/project-hail-mary-map.html My page shows a stellar map (from the viewpoint of Polaris) and a sky chart showing the key stars from Earth's viewpoint. Source code (MIT license for my stuff) is at: https://github.com/david-a-wheeler/plot-stars https://github.com/david-a-wheeler/plot-stars

speleo 5mo ago
Thank you so much for the blog post! I credited you in the about page, I used your charts as reference for the Astrophage infection graph view with the Petrova mode. I shared your blog with my friends, it was a great read.
- dwheeler 5mo ago
  Thanks for the credit, I appreciate it! Glad it was helpful. I wouldn't call it a "blog post" though, it's simply an essay. I update my essay whenever I decide it needs updating, and "blog posts" are usually chronological and fixed in time once posted. Take care!

JoeDaDude 5mo ago

Cool! How would navigation actually work? Dead reckoning? Inertial? Stellar reference? Pulsar navigation? Also, the dashed red line is --- SPOILER ALERT! ---- only part of the trajectory in the film, as there is another leg of the voyage not shown.

jinushaun 5mo ago

This is amazing and even works on a phone. Controls are intuitive and no bugs or glitches. Incredible.

addybojangles 5mo ago

Super cool, I'm like 2 hours away from finishing the audiobook and it has been STELLAR (had to).

sidharthshrvstv 5mo ago

That is super cool!

tjpnz 5mo ago

Moving up or down relative to the Solar System's plane takes an insane amount of Delta V and with our technology would require getting a gravity assist from the Sun. But with astrophage that problem goes away.

Testuser8403 5mo ago

This is a test comment

multimax 5mo ago

Awesome work!

xiaoluolyg 5mo ago

really cool, can we hot-plug in our own map?

martzoukos 5mo ago

Oh, that doesn't seem so far

snazarov92 5mo ago

Nice! I love the film

mervinbratic 5mo ago

Really cool!

_joel 5mo ago

I started to watch the film last night but only got a bit into it. Feels basically like a "Sunshine" ripoff to me but I'll watch the rest tonight.

lwhi 5mo ago
I found it annoying .. but I know lots of people who liked it.

zombot 5mo ago

Are the Pfhor still engaged at Tau Ceti? Is there a bus route to Wolf 359? I have so many questions.

light_tech 5mo ago

[dead]

indianbunghole 5mo ago

Project Hail India – Restroom Navigation Chart

tuvix 5mo ago

Coming to this thread late but this makes me want to do a star trek one! Going to be way more difficult to parse through all the competing references to location and distance but I guess we’ll see how big of a trekky I am

AlexWasHeree 5mo ago

very cool concept

killjoywashere 5mo ago

Where is the Petrova line?!

kittikitti 5mo ago

This is wonderful, I appreciate the share! This is an incredible simulation based on real-world data. I haven't seen the movie, but I might get it from P2P, are there any scenes that would be enhanced if I pull this up on my phone?

sonnyproto 5mo ago

This movie is one of the greatest movies of all time

KetoManx64 5mo ago

What a fantastic visualization. I've read through the Bobiverse series twice at this point and remember all these different star systems from the books (Epsilon Eridani,Tau Ceti, Tau Ceti, etc,) but I've never seen a visualization of where they're located and didn't realize just how much I've wanted something like this until I saw it.

mujib77 5mo ago

Very Cool! What was the hardest part creating it?

xtiansimon 5mo ago

Looks like the desktop game Homeworld. (One of my all-time favs.)

mcswell 4mo ago

On Vivaldi (a chromium-based browser), it just hangs at the initialization phase. I tried it on Firefox, and of course it comes right up.