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Where can I find a preferably interactive, noob friendly map of the Milky Way and beyond?
This is for worldbuilding purposes. I'm not exactly a "science dude", so I'd like to get a better idea of our solar system and beyond, preferably with links to layman-friendly explanations on things like:
- distances and travel time not only having Earth as a starting point, but from any given point to another
- if at all possible, including hypothetical alien and/or future technologies
- Earth-like planets
- locations that might be able to sustain life, and which kind of life it could sustain
- locations that, while unsuitable to carbon-based life, might receive enough energy to sustain artificial intelligence
I remember there's some kind of simulator or engine, that can run on a computer... anyone remembers the name? And would it run on an aging laptop with an i5 processor and Intel HD4400 integrated graphics?
Thanks!
EDIT: I guess I'll make this question a bit more approachable, so... what are some YouTube channels that can teach me more the basics of our solar system, nearby systems, the Milky Way, and how all of those are linked together?.
You might try Stellarium (online version) or one of its alternatives. It gives easy distances from Earth and summaries for documented objects.
Off hand I don't know if it supports distance between a selection or filtering for things like a list of possibly habitable planets. It looks like this guy had some luck, and that community probably would have some good leads.
I’ve seen an online demo somewhere that zooms out from the solar system and is based on real star locations, but beyond the solar system, the stars just look like they’re scattered randomly (which they are), until you get far enough out that the galaxy’s structure is apparent, and that’s just incredibly far.
Also, once you get past the classic stars that are visible without a telescope, the stars mostly don’t even have names, just numbers.
Which is to say that for fictional purposes, it’s not going to be a very interesting map. You might as well make up star locations using a random number generator.
Edit: here is similar demo, though I think the one I saw had more stars.
I'd probably look into whatever is the closest and most discernible and start from there[1]. Thanks.
[1] EDIT: because I wish for Earth to have some relevance in this universe.
Elite: Dangerous. The game hits on almost everything you're looking for.
Sadly will not likely run on old laptop, but it is a very accurate (circa 2014) procedural generation modeled like the Milky Way, seeded with numerous star charts and other data.
I actually have this on Xbox. Sadly they decided to not update it anymore. Anyway, I'm stuck at the tutorial. Tutorials are generally not that hard :P
Not exactly a map but I recently watched this Journey Through The Universe - HD Documentary which I think you might find very inspirational for writing or even general curiosity. I can promise you that by the time you finish watching this, you'll get the feeling that your worldly mundane problems are nothing!