Explore Nearby Stars and distant black holes in 3D
Calculate real Time Dilation

Now Available for Iphone, iPad & Mac (soon)

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Get NearLight on iPhone, iPad and Mac (soon)

NearLight for iPhone and iPad

Is your favorite sci-fi movie physically right?

Built for astronomy fans, sci-fi film lovers, and physics enthusiasts, NearLight turns nearby space into an interactive experience. Search star systems, inspect known stellar data and exoplanets, compare travel times across different speed and acceleration models and see the relativistic affects of black holes with your own eyes. From realistic star maps to relativistic journey calculations, NearLight makes space travel feel tangible.

Calculate Acceleration an De-Acceleration phases with different g values and see, where your spaceship has to turn. Get the relativistic Onboard Travel Times (OTT) fast, with just a slider. Find out how much time went by on Earth.

NearLight for Mac

Explore nearby star systems in a beautifully detailed 3D space simulator built for the Mac. Search real stars, inspect their data, and compare interstellar travel times through classic and relativistic physics. 

Black Hole Sim brings Eric Bruneton’s WebGL-grade general-relativistic raytracer into your hand. Tilt around 73 confirmed black holes — from Cygnus X-1 to TON 618 — read live time dilation in nanosecond precision, and watch one hour stretch into seven Earth years on Miller’s Planet. The physics is real. The rest is up to you.

Go full screen and view our neighborhood on the big screen or see the monstrous black hole spinning its giant disc as you get closer to the event horizon.

See the effects of time dilation, the Lorentz factor, and near-light-speed travel as you chart your course through nearby space.

Coming soon!

Feature List

  • Explore 100 Lightyears of nearby star systems in a cinematic 3D space view
  • Search and inspect 2400+ real stars, including known names, distances, and stellar data
  • Discover red-highlighted neighboring stars within 10 light-years of your selected destination
  • Explore over 70 detailed known black holes, including the massive TON-618 or Gargantua from Interstellar.
  • Compare Earth travel time and onboard travel time using relativistic calculations.
  • 6 DEF – Degrees of freedom, rotate the map, pinch to zoom in and out, move the Axis in all directions with 2 fingers. Turn finger sideways for other axes.
  • Reset your View back to your target, turn labels on and off or turn „Auto Rotation“ on, which pans around your target in the direction you gave it a spin with you mouse or finger
  • Switch between constant speed and constant acceleration space travel models.
  • In „Acceleration Unlimited“ mode you define an instant and constant travel value in lightspeed (c). 
  • In „Acceleration in g“ mode you can set g values for each phase of your space travel, the acceleration phase and de-acceleration phase to simulate a real spaceship.
  • Simulate getting closer to the event horizon, change the spin of the black hole disc and watch 2 different clocks run different times fast.
  • See the effects of time dilation, the Lorentz factor, and near-light-speed travel, where weeks, months and even years pass by faster on earth than in your ship.
  • View exoplanet host stars and relevant stellar metadata
  • Designed for both Mac and iOS, with a clean, exploratory workflow
  • more features to come in 2026

What NearLight makes special


If you’ve ever wondered what interstellar travel would actually feel like in a realistic way, NearLight makes the physics visible. Get closer to the event horizon of a black hole or watch a spaceship path stretch across 3D space, choose a destination star, and see how much time passes on Earth versus aboard the ship. It’s part astronomy explorer, part physics visualizer, and part sci-fi dream machine. Easy to use, easy to understand.

FAQ & Support

Any Questions?

Yes and you can get NearLight on all 3 Apple Devices – MacOS (soon), iphone and ipad

Currently not. But it´s not ruled out on future realeases.

A lot of ideas are in my head.

In a near future release i will plan to simulate time lapse A to B Travel (Sol to selected target) with analog clocks to show the time dilation even more.

Also the star systems data will be expanded over time, including temperatures, masses, etc.

 

Yes. The app is built around real nearby star systems and their known astronomical data.

NearLight currently focuses on nearby star systems from a curated catalog of around 100 lightyears, so not every star in the sky is included. Some stars may be missing because they are outside the current catalog radius, have incomplete source data, or are listed under a different catalog identifier or alias. If you do not find a star, try a common alternate name, HIP number, or catalog ID. We also improve the database over time, so additional stars and metadata may appear in future updates.

ETT means Earth Travel Time. It shows how long the trip would take as measured from Earth. OTT means Onboard Travel Time. It is the time experienced by the traveler on the spaceship, including relativistic effects.

Time dilation is the difference between Earth time and onboard travel time in a spaceaship at high speeds, especially near the speed of light. Time passes differently for each observer.

Time Dilation also happens when closing in on a black hole. With NearLight, you can see these effects with moving clocks by simply dragging the slider to change the distance to the black hole, or the spin, or it´s mass.

Ever seen Interstallar or the recent movie Project Hail Mary? Their physics are quite real and show time dilation in a meaningful way.

The Lorentz factor, written as γ (gamma), is a core part of special relativity. It describes how time, length, and mass-related measurements change as an object moves closer to the speed of light. In NearLight, it is used to show how Onboard Travel Time (OTT) changes compared with Earth Travel Time (ETT) at relativistic speeds.

The formula is:

γ = 1 / sqrt(1 - v²/c²)

Where:

  • v = the ship’s speed
  • c = the speed of light

As v gets closer to c, the Lorentz factor grows very large. That is why time onboard the ship appears to slow down relative to Earth.

For travel time, a simple form is:

OTT = ETT / γ

This means:

  • at low speeds, OTT and ETT are almost the same
  • at very high speeds, OTT becomes much smaller than ETT
  • at exactly the speed of light, the formula no longer applies to a massive object

Some stars have limited public data or incomplete catalog metadata, so not every star has full physical details, aliases, or exoplanet information yet.

Yes, partially. When available, NearLight includes exoplanet host name and shows known planets for selected systems.

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