Chrome Experiments were and still are an excellent resource for showcasing the technical capabilities of Google's browser. Many of them have vanished over time, but one that remains intact and deserves every moment of your time is "100,000 Stars". Based on various databases, catalogs, and images from space agencies, this galactic tour will let you know a bit more about the Milky Way and our main stellar neighbors.
Space is big, and any attempt to visualize its dimensions is always a special challenge. The closest star after the Sun is Proxima Centauri, and reaching it would take us 4.24 years at the speed of light... in the best case. Although there are some concepts exploring the possibility of sending an interstellar probe to that star, the best alternatives remain pointing a telescope in its direction or compiling all available data for a virtual exploration.
That is exactly what 100,000 Stars offers, an old Chrome experiment that fortunately hasn't gone anywhere. Initially developed as a technical demo for Google's browser, today it serves to learn about both Proxima Centauri and the rest of the stars closest to the Solar System, and to obtain a visual representation with more than 100,000 stars.
100,000 Stars: A Classic Chrome Experiment to Explore the Galaxy
The temptation to click on a star is very strong, but I recommend starting your exploration with the available tour. The adventure begins at the Sun, followed by data about the Voyager probe (which appear to be outdated), a visual reference to the light-year, the closest stars to our solar system, the position and density for other 100,000 stars (hence the name), and finally a zoom-out of the Milky Way.
Naturally, the developers took some artistic liberties. For example, the galaxy is based on NGC 1232 (another spiral galaxy like the Milky Way), and the star renders were derived from images on Wikipedia and various space agencies. The texts describing each star are also extracted from Wikipedia, with links to the original articles.
Beyond its limitations, 100,000 Stars remains fascinating, and it definitely deserves a revisit. It works perfectly even in modern editions of Chrome and its Chromium flavors, except for the original music (created by Sam Hulick, composer of Mass Effect and other games), which is no longer available.
Official site: Click here
