The idea behind the atlas
There is always more beyond.
Infinity is an interactive work of cosmic imagination. Its continuous zoom begins at the speculative multiverse, enters an observable horizon and its cosmic web, approaches the Milky Way, continues into our solar system and Earth, then travels through a landscape, a tree and its leaf, DNA, and a carbon atom.
The solar system, galaxy, cosmic web, and observable horizon are inspired by astronomy. Their geometry is generated for the experience. Individual particles are not measured stars or galaxies, and planetary sizes and distances are compressed to keep them visible together. Inter-scale distances are also compressed, with logarithmic camera movement to bridge them.
The multiverse is speculative. Neither the existence of nested universes nor the appearance of regions beyond our observable horizon has been established by observation. The atlas offers an artistic way to explore those ideas without claiming to map the whole physical universe.
Every generated world has a repeatable numerical seed. A shared address restores that seed, the selected universe, and your exact position along the zoom path. All 10 perspectives share one scene and camera; scrolling, pinching, and the scale rail move the same camera. Zoom back out to retrace your journey.
The camera follows one continuous, reversible path. Display distances bridge enormous gaps logarithmically; bodies, the tree-to-leaf and leaf-to-DNA transitions, and the atom nucleus are enlarged or compressed for legibility. The cosmic structures are procedural illustrations. The multiverse is speculative. Atomic clouds sample approximate isolated-atom orbitals, not the electron density of carbon bonded inside DNA.
Imagery, coordinates, and credits
NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD). NASA meshes and UV mapping retained, with one surface subdivision to smooth enlarged silhouettes. Embedded imagery resized to at most 2048 pixels (1024 on touch devices) and re-encoded. Display scale, axial orientation and illumination adapted for this atlas. NASA media usage guidelines
NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD). NASA meshes and UV mapping retained, with one surface subdivision to smooth enlarged silhouettes. Embedded imagery resized to at most 2048 pixels (1024 on touch devices) and re-encoded. Display scale, axial orientation and illumination adapted for this atlas. NASA media usage guidelines
NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD). NASA meshes and UV mapping retained, with one surface subdivision to smooth enlarged silhouettes. Embedded imagery resized to at most 2048 pixels (1024 on touch devices) and re-encoded. Display scale, axial orientation and illumination adapted for this atlas. NASA media usage guidelines
NASA/JPL-Caltech. NASA meshes and UV mapping retained, with one surface subdivision to smooth enlarged silhouettes. Embedded imagery resized to at most 2048 pixels (1024 on touch devices) and re-encoded. Display scale, axial orientation and illumination adapted for this atlas. NASA media usage guidelines
NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD). NASA meshes and UV mapping retained, with one surface subdivision to smooth enlarged silhouettes. Embedded imagery resized to at most 2048 pixels (1024 on touch devices) and re-encoded. Display scale, axial orientation and illumination adapted for this atlas. NASA media usage guidelines
NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD). NASA meshes and UV mapping retained, with one surface subdivision to smooth enlarged silhouettes. Embedded imagery resized to at most 2048 pixels (1024 on touch devices) and re-encoded. Display scale, axial orientation and illumination adapted for this atlas. NASA media usage guidelines
NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD). NASA meshes and UV mapping retained, with one surface subdivision to smooth enlarged silhouettes. Embedded imagery resized to at most 2048 pixels (1024 on touch devices) and re-encoded. Display scale, axial orientation and illumination adapted for this atlas. NASA media usage guidelines
NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD). NASA meshes and UV mapping retained, with one surface subdivision to smooth enlarged silhouettes. Embedded imagery resized to at most 2048 pixels (1024 on touch devices) and re-encoded. Display scale, axial orientation and illumination adapted for this atlas. NASA media usage guidelines
NASA Blue Marble Next Generation. Reto Stöckli and Robert Simmon. July 2004 composite; resized for the atlas. NASA imagery
Solar System Scope textures, distributed with the Three.js Earth example. Clouds are a historical mask, not current weather. CC BY 4.0
USDA, USGS The National Map: Orthoimagery. Service data refreshed June 2024. The valley blends into surrounding Sierra Nevada imagery. Texture coordinates use the actual export extents returned by the map service. US government imagery
Mapzen Terrain Tiles, drawing on USGS elevation sources for this US location. Detailed valley and wider regional Terrarium tiles, bilinearly sampled in Web Mercator and draped onto a curved local surface, with no vertical exaggeration. Source attribution
Poly Haven Tree Small 02. Original branching and bark, with the foliage replaced by instances of the close-up leaf. A botanical illustration placed in Yosemite, not a survey of a tree at this location. CC0
ambientCG Leaf001. Every canopy leaf and the continuous close-up share these PBR maps, UV crop and curved shape. The close-up occupies an actual canopy attachment point. No species or location identification is implied. CC0
PDB 1BNA, Drew et al. (1981), Structure of a B-DNA dodecamer. 486 heavy atoms in 12 base pairs; solvent waters omitted. Bonds inferred from covalent radii; backbone tubes are guides. PDB data: CC0
Start with the science
- Observable universe
- Cosmic web
- Milky Way
- Solar system
- Planet Earth
- Yosemite Valley
- A living leaf
- DNA double helix
- A carbon atom