real planets on a real map

the star map in star focus is real. every position is from the hyg catalogue, accurate enough to draw without lying. on top of it we overlaid the nasa exoplanet archive, so every confirmed exoplanet sits on its actual host star. the list grows as new confirmations land.

those planets were found despite being thousands of times fainter than the stars they orbit, dozens to hundreds of light years from earth. mostly two methods. watching a star dim for a few hours as a planet crosses in front of it (the transit method). or watching the star wobble from the planet's gravity, visible as a tiny shift in its light (radial velocity). the kepler and tess space telescopes did most of the dimming-watching.

names follow the archive: host star plus a lowercase letter. trappist-1 e, hd 209458 b. the first confirmed planet gets b. astronomers reserved a for the star itself.

in star focus, fly past a host star during a session and every confirmed planet around it unlocks in your logbook. you build your own catalogue of real worlds, one focus session at a time. with pro you can route a session directly to a chosen planet instead of letting the app pick.