Show HN: Galaxium, an experimental WebGPU space explorer • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Galaxium, an experimental WebGPU space explorer

#31

Post by rfgplk » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 7:49 PM UTC

Galaxium can't run in this browser Galaxium uses WebGPU, a recent browser technology that isn't available or enabled here. It works in up-to-date versions of Chrome, Edge, Safari (macOS 26+) and Firefox, on a computer with hardware graphics.

In the meantime, you can explore the night sky at stellarium-web.org — it runs in any browser.

You borked it.

Re: Show HN: Galaxium, an experimental WebGPU space explorer

#32

Post by canadaduane » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 7:56 PM UTC

rfgplk wrote: post #31

Galaxium can't run in this browser Galaxium uses WebGPU, a recent browser technology that isn't available or enabled here. It works in up-to-date versions of Chrome, Edge, Safari (macOS 26+) and Firefox, on a computer with hardware graphics. In the meantime, you can explore the night sky at stellarium-web.org — it runs in any browser. You borked it.

I think your comment could be more helpful--"You borked it" doesn't describe the problem or what you're expecting to be different.

Re: Show HN: Galaxium, an experimental WebGPU space explorer

#33

Post by sobiolite » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 8:22 PM UTC

jermaustin1 wrote: post #12

Wow! I'm utterly speechless. I love space "browsers" - I lose myself in them, just clicking through all the entities. Also TIL that there are satellite galaxies, and I've never noticed those on other toys/tools like this. I always though Andromeda was the closest galaxy, but it is FAR away compared to `Sgr dSph` which is within 50kly from the center of the Milky Way.

Same here! I can't believe I never knew of the existence of satellite galaxies until now.

Re: Show HN: Galaxium, an experimental WebGPU space explorer

#34

Post by velocityNote » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 9:06 PM UTC

is it based on WASM？

Re: Show HN: Galaxium, an experimental WebGPU space explorer

#35

Post by tlahtinen » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 10:01 PM UTC

Super cool project! These kinds of viewers seem to pop up every few days, but this one is the best one so far. For feedback, I found it a bit odd that when selecting Sombrero Galaxy for example it zooms to the black hole M104 at the center of it, and actually viewing the entire galaxy then requires several mouse wheel spins :) Otherwise, great stuff.