The breakthrough feature: “The Universe Is Watching” 🛸

This one bends your brain. Light is slow — a star 57 light-years away is RIGHT NOW catching the light that left Earth 57 years ago, in 1969. So someone on a planet there tonight, with a good telescope, would be watching the Moon landing LIVE. Not a recording — live.

Added a timeline slider. Drag it and the 3D galaxy lights up the shell of stars at that exact distance, with a headline naming the moment those stars are seeing. Real events are pinned — first flight, penicillin, Moon landing, first iPhone, first black hole photo. Your own birthday gets pinned too.

All numbers come straight from the real HYG catalog. The shader takes shell-radius uniforms so brightening the right band of stars while dragging needs zero geometry rebuilds. Live demo: https://mrcrackman00.github.io/Lightyears/