About Astroneo
Astroneo is a free, open-access astronomy platform that makes the universe explorable for everyone — from curious beginners to passionate stargazers and professional researchers.
Our Mission
The universe is unimaginably vast — spanning 93 billion light-years in observable diameter, containing more than two trillion galaxies, and hosting an estimated 10²⁴ stars. For most of human history, exploring this cosmic expanse required access to expensive telescopes, university observatories, and dense academic papers written for specialists.
Astroneo was built to change that. We created a platform where anyone with an internet connection can search a catalogue of 8,898 catalogued objects, read in-depth profiles of five well-studied black holes including Sagittarius A* and M87*, interact with 3D simulations, use a sky map tied to their real-time GPS location, and read cited educational articles written in plain language.
Everything on Astroneo is and will always be free. We believe that access to knowledge about our universe is a fundamental right — not a privilege reserved for those who can afford a subscription.
What We Offer
Astroneo brings together multiple tools under one roof to give users the most comprehensive free astronomy experience on the web:
- Star Search & Explorer: Search and browse our catalog of 8,800+ real stars, each with spectral classification, distance, luminosity, temperature, and constellation data sourced from the HYG stellar database.
- Black Hole Profiles: Profiles of five well-studied black holes — including Sagittarius A* (the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way), M87* (the first black hole ever imaged), Cygnus X-1, V404 Cygni, and TON 618 — with visualizations and scientific data.
- Interactive Sky Map: A real-time augmented reality sky map that uses your device's GPS and orientation to show you exactly what stars and constellations are above you at any moment.
- 3D Simulations: Explore 3D interactive models of black holes, complete with accretion disks and relativistic jet visualizations.
- AstroBot AI Assistant: An AI-powered chatbot trained to answer questions about astronomy, space science, and our universe — available on every page.
- Astronomy Articles: In-depth, individually sourced articles covering stellar physics, stargazing guides, telescope buying advice and cosmology — each one listing the references it draws on.
- Upcoming Events: A calendar of upcoming astronomical events — meteor showers, eclipses, planetary conjunctions, and more.
Our Technology
Astroneo is built with modern web technologies designed to deliver a fast, accessible, and beautiful experience across all devices. Our frontend is built with Next.js and TypeScript, ensuring fast server-side rendering and excellent SEO. Our 3D visualizations use WebGL and Three.js to render realistic astronomical simulations directly in the browser without requiring any plugins or downloads.
Our star catalog data is sourced from the HYG Database (a compilation of the Hipparcos, Yale Bright Star, and Gliese catalogs) and enhanced with data from NASA's HORIZONS system, ESA's Gaia mission, and the SIMBAD Astronomical Database maintained by the Strasbourg Astronomical Data Center.
Our AI assistant (AstroBot) is powered by Google's Gemini AI model, fine-tuned to provide accurate, scientifically grounded answers to astronomy questions. All astronomical data displayed on the platform is cross-referenced against multiple authoritative sources before being published.
Our Story
Astroneo began in 2024 as a personal project by a developer passionate about both astronomy and accessible web technology. The original concept was simple: create a star search tool that was faster, more beautiful, and more informative than anything that existed at the time.
As the project grew, so did its scope. Requests came in for black hole profiles, an interactive sky map, a blog and more, and the site now covers all of them. It is used by school students working on astronomy projects, by amateur astronomers planning an observing session, and by anyone who wants a quick, accurate reference without a paywall in front of it.
Astroneo remains a small independent project rather than a company, built and maintained by one person with help from readers who write in with corrections and suggestions.
Editorial Policy
Where the data comes from.Catalogue values — coordinates, magnitudes, distances, spectral classes — are drawn from the HYG database, itself a compilation of the Hipparcos, Yale Bright Star and Gliese catalogues. Physical and mission data come from NASA, ESA and the SIMBAD database at Strasbourg.
Every article is sourced.Each written page ends with the references it is built from, linking to NASA, ESA, ESO, Chandra, peer-reviewed papers or the relevant mission team. Where a question is genuinely unsettled — Deneb’s distance, the origin of supermassive black holes, whether dark energy is constant — the article says so rather than presenting one answer as settled.
Reading times are measured, not estimated. They are calculated from the actual word count of each article. Publication and last-reviewed dates are both shown, so you can see when a page was written and when it was last checked.
Catalogue pages are marked as such. Astroneo holds data on 8,898 objects, but only a few dozen have full written articles. The rest are catalogue reference pages showing measured values, and they are deliberately excluded from search engine indexes because a data table is not an article. They remain available to browse and search on the site.
Corrections. Errors are fixed on discovery and the review date updated. Write to contact@asenra.in if you spot one.
Our Core Values
Scientific Accuracy
Every data point on Astroneo is sourced from peer-reviewed astronomical catalogs, including the HYG Database, NASA archives, and the SIMBAD Astronomical Database.
Accessible to Everyone
Space belongs to humanity. We believe anyone — regardless of background, age, or prior knowledge — deserves access to accurate and engaging astronomical information.
Education First
From our blog articles to interactive black hole simulations, everything we build is designed to teach, inspire curiosity, and deepen understanding of the cosmos.
Community Driven
We listen to feedback from students, amateur astronomers, educators, and space enthusiasts to continuously improve the platform and add features that matter.
Get in Touch
Have questions, ideas, feedback, or a collaboration proposal? We'd love to hear from you. Our team typically responds within 1–2 business days.
contact@asenra.in