NearLight

NearLight is a 3D space simulator for exploring nearby star systems, visualizing interstellar distances in our galaxy, and calculating travel times with both classic and relativistic physics. Explore massive black holes, fly through a living star map, inspect real stars, and see how space travel changes when the Lorentz factor, and relativity enter the picture.
Calculate time dilation easy and see it´s effects visually.

Is your favorite sci-fi movie physically right?

Built for astronomy fans, sci-fi film lovers, and physics enthusiasts, NearLight turns nearby space into an interactive experience. Search star systems, inspect known stellar data and exoplanets, compare travel times across different speed and acceleration models and see the relativistic affects of black holes with your own eyes. From our own Solar System, which is represented in exact orbit data to realistic star maps and our milky way with relativistic journey calculations, NearLight makes space travel feel tangible.

Calculate Acceleration an De-Acceleration phases with different g values and see, where your spaceship has to turn. Get the relativistic Onboard Travel Times (OTT) fast, with just a slider. Find out how much time went by on Earth.

Features:
- Tour our own Solar System in a Kepler-accurate 3D scene — the Sun, all 8 planets and 8 major moons on real JPL orbits, with a day/night Earth, Saturn's rings and a textured sky.
- Explore 1.000 Lightyears of nearby star systems in a cinematic 3D space view
- Search and inspect 8.000+ real stars, including known names, distances, and stellar data
- Discover red-highlighted neighboring stars within 10 light-years of your selected destination
- Plan Trips in our Milky Way and see the real time and distance it takes
- Switch between three onboard cameras during a trip — free view, a side chase cam, and a locked first-person cockpit view
- Experience relativistic optics from the cockpit near light speed: star aberration (the forward "headlight" cone), Doppler colour shift and relativistic beaming.
- Explore over 70 detailed known black holes, including the massive TON-618 or Gargantua from Interstellar.
- Compare Earth travel time and onboard travel time using relativistic calculations.
- Read the full relativistic picture — Earth distance, length-contracted distance, peak speed as a fraction of c, and the estimated energy needed (switch units between Joule, TWh, PWh and "Sun-output time").
- 6 DEF – Degrees of freedom, rotate the map, pinch to zoom in and out, move the Axis in all directions with 2 fingers. Turn finger sideways for other axes.
- Reset your View back to your target, turn labels on and off or turn „Auto Rotation“ on, which pans around your target in the direction you gave it a spin with you mouse or finger
- Switch between constant speed and constant acceleration space travel models.
- In „Acceleration Unlimited“ mode you define an instant and constant travel value in lightspeed (c).
- In „Acceleration in g“ mode you can set g values for each phase of your space travel, the acceleration phase and de-acceleration phase to simulate a real spaceship.
- Simulate getting closer to the event horizon, change the spin of the black hole disc and watch 2 different clocks run different times fast.
- See the effects of time dilation, the Lorentz factor, and near-light-speed travel, where weeks, months and even years pass by faster on earth than in your ship.
- View exoplanet host stars and relevant stellar metadata

Use it on Mac, iPad and iPhone — a native app on every platform, fully offline, with no account and no tracking.