Explore a top-down map of our Milky Way - labeled Sagittarius, Orion (Local), and Perseus arms with the Sun about 26,000 light-years from the center on a disk about 100,000 light-years across.
Play spin turns the disk slowly so arm labels stay readable; pause and jump to Sun, Sagittarius, Orion, Perseus, or the galactic center.
Diameter about 100,000 light-years. Sun about 26,000 light-years from the center. Teaching arms: Sagittarius, Orion (Local), Perseus. One galactic year is about 230 million years (published range often 225-250). This is our labeled Milky Way map - not the generic unlabeled spiral on Galaxy 3D Simulator - and not an N-body model.
Milky Way Map 3D Explorer
Explore a top-down map of our Milky Way - labeled Sagittarius, Orion (Local), and Perseus arms with the Sun about 26,000 light-years from the center on a disk about 100,000 light-years across.
Drag to orbit the view, scroll or pinch to zoom, and press Play spin. Highlight Sun, Sagittarius, Orion, Perseus, or Center to fill the facts panel with the matching literacy.
The facts panel lists diameter about 100,000 ly, Sun about 26,000 ly from center, named teaching arms, and a galactic year about 230 Myr (range 225-250).
- Top-down Milky Way particle disk with warm core
- Labeled teaching arms: Sagittarius, Orion (Local), Perseus
- Yellow Sun marker on an orbit ring at ~26,000 ly
- Galactic center fleck toward the core
- Play spin / Pause spin for a slow educational beat
- Runs fully in the browser with the vendored three.js engine - no account, no upload
Teachers use it to place the Sun in our galaxy, students jump arm buttons to read structure names, and curious readers compare this labeled map to the generic spiral on Galaxy 3D Simulator.
| Quantity | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Diameter | about 100,000 ly | Standard galactic summaries |
| Sun from center | about 26,000 ly | Standard galactic summaries |
| Teaching arms | Sagittarius / Orion (Local) / Perseus | Common classroom labels |
| Galactic year | about 230 Myr (range 225-250) | Literature order of magnitude |
Everything renders on your device with WebGL. The 3D engine loads once (about 0.7 MB) and is cached; no scene data is sent to a server.
The scene is an educational visualization - arm paths are parametric art sized to published diameters, not a Gaia catalog or N-body disk simulation.
For a step-by-step walkthrough, read the Milky Way Map 3D Explorer step-by-step guide. The Space 3D collection also includes a Galaxy 3D Simulator for a generic spiral and a Solar System 3D Explorer for our planets.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Milky Way Map 3D Explorer show?
A top-down teaching map of the Milky Way with Sagittarius, Orion (Local), and Perseus arm markers, a Sun fleck about 26,000 ly from the center, and a diameter about 100,000 ly in the facts table.
How is this different from Galaxy 3D Simulator?
Galaxy 3D Simulator builds a generic unlabeled spiral. Milky Way Map 3D Explorer is our galaxy - named arms plus the Sun's place in the disk.
Where is the Sun?
About 26,000 light-years from the galactic center, shown as a yellow fleck on the Orion (Local) Arm with a faint orbit ring.
What is a galactic year?
The time for the Sun to orbit the galactic center once - about 230 million years here, with a common published range of 225-250 Myr.
Are the arms exact survey maps?
No. Arm labels are classroom teaching markers on parametric spiral art sized to published diameters - not a Gaia survey catalog.
Is this an N-body simulation?
No. The scene is an educational geometry visualization. It does not integrate gravity or evolve star formation.