Live Meteors lets visitors listen to meteor radio pings and explains how the system works.
LightYear
LightYear visualizes how long radio broadcasts take to reach different celestial bodies at light speed.
About LightYear
LightYear shows how radio broadcasts travel outward from Earth at light speed. Scrolling away from Earth moves backward in time, displaying a body name, its distance, and the music that would have been traveling at that distance. Track listings are drawn from over 120 years of Billboard data. The site states that real broadcasts would fade to background noise within a few light years, and that some stars are omitted for display and star radii are not accurate.
Key features
- Scroll outward from Earth to go backward in time
- Display body name and distance for celestial bodies
- Play period music matching light-travel time to distance
- Show radio wave extent over 100 light years
- Use star colors representing color temperature
Best for: People interested in light-speed delay and historic recorded music in a space visualization.
Good for
- Covers radio travel over 100 light years from Earth
- Uses over 120 years of Billboard track listings
- Colors stars by color temperature
Watch out for
- May have trouble running on mobile devices
- May have trouble in browsers other than Chrome or Firefox
- Star radii are not accurate and some stars are omitted
LightYear at a glance
- Website
- lightyear.fm
- Category
- Education & Learning › Space & Astronomy
- Type
- Website
- Pricing
- Not confirmed. Check the site
- Platforms
- Web
- Open source
- Not stated
- Language
- English
- Last checked
- Oct 5, 2026 · Online when checked
- Listed
- Oct 5, 2026
LightYear alternatives
Tools and sites you could use instead, ranked by how closely they match.
DarkSkyMap helps users find stargazing locations by displaying light pollution information.
Space Atlas tracks satellites and rocket bodies on a live 3D map, with history extending from Sputnik to today.
Stellarium is planetarium software that displays the sky and celestial objects.
The USGS Astrogeology map search lets users find planetary maps by celestial body, including planets, moons, and asteroids.
The Stellarium Web planetarium displays celestial objects in a browser-based sky view.
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