Cosmic Atlas
A scientific atlas with more than 15 million real objects from NASA, ESA and astronomical surveys.
What it is
Cosmic Atlas is a navigable map of the real universe. It brings the Solar System, nearby stars, deep-sky catalogues and millions of distant galaxies into one searchable atlas.
Why it exists
Astronomy data is spread across institutions, catalogues and incompatible scales. The atlas gives people one place to move from planetary distances to the cosmic web, inspect an object and see where its data came from.
What I built
I designed the interface, the scientific data model and the production system. Search and object details are backed by a catalogue API, while the largest star and galaxy layers are prepared as static map tiles so the browser only loads what the current view needs.
What was difficult
More than 15 million points have to remain responsive across enormous changes in scale. The application also distinguishes measured values from estimates and keeps every object traceable to NASA, ESA or the survey that published it.
Current result
The live atlas lets people search, inspect, measure and compare real objects from the Solar System to distant galaxies. Its methods and source code are public.