Space Engine is one impressive project all started by codes written by a single person Vladimir Romanyuk and it is all free!
Space Engine is a purely exploratory environment. Almost all objects are real and astronomically mapped using scientific resources such as the HIPPARCOS Project of European Space Agency (ESA) which has now upgraded into the Gaia galaxy mapping mission, the historic 1888 compilation called the New General Catalog/Index Catalog (NGC/IC) of J.L.E. Dreyer, the Messier Objects, the International Astronomical Union’s the Minor Planet Center (MPC) and the NASA Exoplanet Archive. Additionally users can model their own creations.
Since the Antikythera Mechanism humanity strives to model and understand the dynamics of our universe. There are many ambitious projects to map our universe including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE). This is an exciting quest and all of us are holding our breaths for the upcoming James Webb telescope. Just like the Antikythera Mechanism making the data available to its users. Space Engine is aiming to fill this function in a very successful way (but see also Gaia Sky from the ESA).
Technical Description of Galaxy-Mapping Gaia Telescope – ESA from Nature Documentaries.
SpaceEngine is a realistic virtual universe you can explore on your computer. You can travel from star to star, from galaxy to galaxy, landing on any planet, moon, or asteroid with the ability to explore its landscape. You can alter the speed of time and observe any celestial phenomena you please. All transitions are seamless, and this virtual universe has a size of billions of light-years across and contains trillions upon trillions of planetary systems.
Certain parts of the universe is extrapolated. The “procedural generation” of Space Engine depicts the universe the way it is thought to be by modern science. Real celestial objects are also present if you want to visit them, including the planets and moons of our Solar system, thousands of nearby stars with newly discovered exoplanets, and thousands of galaxies that are currently known. Moreover, asteroids, nebulae and even planemos are also included.
Digital modeling and graphic image generation of the Space Engine is impressive as well. Starting from v9.9.0 the Space Engine will incorporate virtual reality systems such as the HTC Vive Pro For instance, the following narrated external virtual tour of the International Space Station has been generated with 360 video capability:
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