A: Yes. When designing Overview, accuracy was one of our main concerns. We did not want Overview to end up being just a beautiful, awesome, virtual reality experience. We wanted astronomers and astrophysicists to be able to enjoy the show without any reservation. We wanted educators and parents to feel confident that their charges were in good (scientific) hands. We wanted the general public to enjoy the experience knowing that every single celestial body – the planets, the comets, the moons – was right where it should be, on a correct orbit, and perfectly to scale.

A: Hipparcos was Europe’s very first astrometry mission; its goal was to measure the positions, distances, motions, brightness and colours of over 100 thousand stars. The results were published as a set of catalogues which we’ve used, in particular, as the backdrop of our Solar System. A precise and accurate backdrop, as seen from the Earth or any other point of our system!

We mostly have to thank the JPL HORIZONS on-line solar system data and ephemeris computation service for the orbits and scale of Solar System objects, such as the 8 planets and their 190 satellites, the Sun, nearly 800 thousand asteroids, and around 3500 comets, but for additional thoroughness, Overview also relies on astrometric observations validated by the International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center.