Cosmic Atlas

The challenge

Render the real universe in a browser: more than fifteen million catalogued objects from NASA, ESA, and survey archives, across scales from planetary orbits to the cosmic web, without inventing a single data point and without melting the client.

The solution

A TypeScript canvas frontend backed by two services: a Phoenix catalog API on PostgreSQL for search and viewport hydration, and a Python ephemeris service computing live positions with Skyfield and NASA/JPL kernels. The multi-million-star Gaia and DESI layers ship as immutable static point tiles served from a CDN, so startup stays light.

Results

• ✓ 15+ million real catalog objects rendered
• ✓ Live Solar System positions from NASA/JPL data
• ✓ Every point traceable to its source catalog