SpaceEngine

SpaceEngine is a science-based simulator of the universe at a 1:1 scale. It contains billions of galaxies, nebulae, stars and planets, represented at their real-world scale. You can travel seamlessly from Earth and the Solar System to a black hole in a distant galaxy, with no transitions, and explore celestial objects throughout space.

Explore space and time

Travel between objects and distances, from a planet’s surface to orbit, interstellar space and beyond. You can move by selecting an object and going to it, or fly freely, and you can travel at up to a million times the speed of light. Accelerate, slow or reverse time, or jump to a specified date to watch the orbital motion of worlds unfold.

SpaceEngine includes known celestial objects drawn from catalogs, including NGC/IC galaxies and HIPPARCOS stars, as well as Solar System bodies and known extrasolar planets. In uncatalogued regions, it generates galaxies, stars, star clusters, nebulae and planetary systems. An object search, a nearby star system search, a scalable universe map and planetary system charts help you navigate; an automatic journal records recently visited objects, and locations can be saved, exported, imported and shared.

Worlds and physics

Every planet you encounter has procedurally generated 3D terrain with detailed textures. Solar System bodies use data from space probes where available, while unmapped and procedural planet surfaces are generated by your computer’s GPU. The simulation also features volumetric 3D galaxies and nebulae with interstellar dust, 3D landscapes on planets and stars, realistic atmospheric scattering, eclipse shadows, animated auroras and comet tails, and light warping near black holes and neutron stars, which have animated accretion disks and jets.

Procedural galaxies, star systems and planets are generated with physical properties such as mass, radius, temperature and atmospheric parameters. The orbital motion of planets, moons and stars in multiple-star systems is calculated and displayed. Spacecraft use Newtonian physics, with concepts including orbital motion, atmospheric flight and Alcubierre warp drive physics.

Flight Simulator

In Flight Simulator mode, you can fly spacecraft anywhere in the universe. Ships use Newtonian physics and have a pilot-assist autopilot that is in early development but usable.

Tools and additions

Interactive tutorials introduce the controls and Planetarium tools. You can view object information in the built-in Wiki, which includes additional written descriptions of many known objects, and display orbital paths, labels, markers, constellations and other informational overlays. SpaceEngine also includes original background music with context-sensitive playback.

You can create and import add-ons, including catalogs, models and textures for deep-space objects and planets, spacecraft models, and custom GUI skins. Add-ons can be shared with others. Free high-resolution texture packs for many Solar System bodies are also available.