Galaxium, an experimental WebGPU space explorer
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Hello, I am the creator and maintainer of Stellarium Mobile. I have been working in my free time for about a year on this new project Galaxium, that is more about traveling in the universe rather than looking at the sky from Earth. It is still experimental, and at the moment I am not sure what it will become. Feedback is welcome.
HN · launched Aug 24, 2026 · 137 upvotes (top 5%) · 4 views
Niche: interactive 3d web simulations · 157 launches, 9 in the last 7 days ▼ -47% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Media & entertainment
- Hardware & robotics
- B2C
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 157 launches in interactive 3d web simulations →
Could you build this?
No An interactive 3D universe explorer utilizing WebGPU requires specialized 3D graphics rendering, astronomical coordinates handling, and massive catalog streaming.
What it would actually take: Requires advanced WebGPU/WGSL shader development capable of logarithmic depth buffering or floating-origin coordinates to avoid precision loss across astronomical distances. It also requires spatial indexing structures (like octrees) to dynamically page and render millions of celestial objects from astronomical catalogs (e.g., Gaia), alongside orbital mechanics algorithms.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: Celestia, Stellarium Web, No Man's Sky, WebGL solar system viewers
Concerns raised: Browser compatibility issues (Firefox, Linux, Chromium on GTX 1070), SSL/security errors blocking access in Firefox and Chrome, Memory allocation errors on older GPUs, Earth rotation appears incorrect for certain timezones, WebGPU technology not available in all browsers
Feature requests: Perspective switching to show objects from Earth's viewpoint, Auto-revolving camera around objects (screensaver mode), Size reference comparisons and scale information, Mobile support, Adjust zoom behavior when selecting objects (view entire galaxy without excessive scrolling)
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 147 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #13 of 148 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 287 days after the earliest competitor.
- farseer.space · hn · 2026-09-15 · 11 upvotes · similarity 0.51
- DailySpace, Android app for exploring space photos and rocket launches · hn · 2026-01-14 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- A browser game where you navigate home to Earth using pulsars · hn · 2026-11-01 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- A solar system simulation in the browser · hn · 2025-12-29 · 13 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- Artemis.fyi · hn · 2026-04-04 · 11 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- Scroll from your own skeleton to the edge of the observable universe · hn · 2026-11-03 · 6 upvotes · similarity 0.44
- Galacius · ph · 2026-09-24 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.42
- Gravity · hn · 2026-06-09 · 217 upvotes · similarity 0.42
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