“The nature of the human mind is such that unless it is stimulated by images of things acting upon it from without, all remembrance of them passes easily away.” - Galileo Galilei
Zooming out from the Sun to the Milky Way Galaxy
The stars near the Sun are depicted with the correct color, brightness, and distance based on data from the Gaia and Hipparcos satellites. These real stars are blended with an artist's conception of the Milky Way galaxy, based on our current understanding of our galaxy's overall structure.
The Big Dipper in 3D
Constellations are often thought of as flat pictures, but this animation reveals that stars in a constellation are all at different distances, forming a 3D shape. The Big Dipper is one of the "flattest" constellations; many constellations are comprised of stars with vastly different distances to the Sun.
Sediment Sorting Animation
This animation uses a particle simulation to show how smaller and lighter sediment is washed further out into lakes, seas, and oceans. Rocks formed by sediment can tell us about the water systems in which they are deposited.
Speed of Light
The speed of light is visualized using a beam of light orbiting the Earth and bouncing between the Earth and the Moon in real time