The universe, in three dimensions.
Cosmos is an interactive atlas for scientists, students and space explorers. Fly between the planets, reshape a spiral galaxy and follow the missions that changed what we know.
Solar System
Drag to rotate, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a body to fly to it. Sizes and distances are stylised so every planet stays visible.
Galaxies
Every point of light here is a star in a simulated spiral. Drag to rotate, scroll or pinch to zoom, then reshape it.
Shape the spiral
How big is it?
Milky Way
Roughly 100,000 light-years across, with hundreds of billions of stars. The Sun sits about 26,000 light-years from the centre.
Andromeda
The nearest large spiral galaxy, about 2.5 million light-years away and a little larger than the Milky Way.
Observable universe
About 93 billion light-years across and home to hundreds of billions of galaxies. Its oldest light has travelled for 13.8 billion years.
This model is a stylised simulation, not survey data.
Missions
Nine missions that widened what we can see, reach and measure, in chronological order. Filter them by kind.