ESA Star Mapper
The ESA Star Mapper visualisation is an exploration of some central aspects of astrometric star catalogues, using data from ESA’s Hipparcos mission.
This interactive experience allows users to delve into this famous dataset, exploring the three-dimensional distribution of almost 60 000 stars from the Hipparcos Catalogue. Stars are visualised as a function of their brightness; it is also possible to show their colours, as well as names and parent constellations for the brightest stars.
Users can get a sense of where in the sky stars were located in the past – or will be in the future – based on their motions measured by Hipparcos.
A visualisation of the ‘Hertzsprung-Russell diagram’, a tool used by astronomers to study the evolution of stars, is provided as well.