Here’s how you can explore the universe without leaving your home

A Google Earth analogue for the universe, the program can be used to 'visit' anywhere from the International Space Station to Jupiter, and even beyond to stars like Alpha Centauri and more.

Researchers from astrophysics, software engineering and other fields at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne came together to make this project a reality.

"Have you ever wanted to explore outer space? Now you can, without leaving Earth, thanks to powerful, open-source beta software VIRUP that builds -- in real-time -- a virtual universe based on the most detailed contemporary astrophysical and cosmological data," the institute tweeted.

VIRUP can be enjoyed through multiple use cases; whether it's panoramic 3D cinema, planetarium domes, personal VR headsets, or even your desktop for 2D viewing.

“The novelty of this project was putting all the data set available into one framework, when you can see the universe at different scales -- nearby us, around the Earth, around the solar system, at the Milky Way level, to see through the universe and time up to the beginning -- what we call the Big Bang,” said Jean-Paul Kneib, director of EPFL’s astrophysics lab.

While the program is free, it does need some computer skills and a computer in order to run. The program can show over 4,500 known exoplanets, millions of galaxies, hundreds of millions of space objects in all, and over 1.5 billion light sources just from the Milky Way. But as future databases gather more data about the universe around us, the program is perfectly capable of inculcating the new sources within itself.

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