The Scale of the Universe | |
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Developer(s) | Cary Huang, Michael Huang |
Composer(s) | Kevin MacLeod, Cliff Martinez |
Engine | Adobe Flash |
Platform(s) | Web-based |
Release | 2010 |
Genre(s) | Edutainment |
The Scale of the Universe is an interactive online visualization tool and website first created in 2010 by Cary and Michael Huang, two brothers from Moraga, California.[1][2][3][4][5] Released on both Newgrounds and the Huang brothers' personal web page, it features a scrollbar that players can use to navigate through orders of magnitude and view various objects within such size ranges. Sliding the scrollbar to the left and right causes the screen to zoom in and out respectively.[1]
The reason the objects don't get pixelated is due to the fact they are separate from the screen, in a effect called resolution independence.
In 2012, Cary and Michael Huang released a sequel titled The Scale of the Universe 2, in which clicking on objects brings up infoboxes that display information about them.[6][7][8]
On 7 October 2018, The Scale of the Universe was featured on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.[9]
In 2020, animation studio Kurzgesagt released the app Universe in a Nutshell, which took inspiration from The Scale of the Universe.[10][11]