Milky Way live wallpaper for Mac
Our galaxy, from outside.
The Milky Way built in 3D from stars, glowing gas and dust, seen from outside and slowly circling behind your desktop icons. It is framed like a desktop picture: tilted and off centre, the bright bulge to one side and the arms sweeping off the edges of the screen.
Animated in real time · One-time purchase, every wallpaper included · macOS 12 or later, Apple silicon and Intel
An Apple-verified version is coming soon as a free update. Until then, macOS asks you to confirm the app once, the first time you open it, and your download page shows how.
Views
One framing, slowly turning.
The wallpaper holds the galaxy in one framing made for a desktop and circles it, a full turn taking close to an hour, so the view turns slowly through the day. Every picture here is a frame from the animated wallpaper.
As it starts
Tilted and off centre: the bright bulge right of the middle with dark lanes of dust across it, and the arms running off the edges of the screen.
Two and a half minutes on
The camera has circled a little way round, and the arms and the dust have shifted against the bulge.
Five minutes on
Further round again. A full circle takes close to an hour.
What you see
A galaxy built from stars and dust.
Nobody has seen the Milky Way from outside, since we live inside it, so this is a model built from measurements: a central bar, arms opening out of its ends, and a thin disc of stars inside a thicker one, with its colours matched to photographs of galaxies like it.
It is made of particles placed in 3D: about 230,000 stars, star-forming clouds strung along the arms, the smooth light of the old disc and the central bulge, and chains of dark dust clouds along the inner edges of the arms.
Every cloud has depth, so the galaxy holds together from every angle as the camera circles: the dust dims only the light behind it, and the bulge rises out of the disc.
About 230,000 stars
Young and old stars in their own colours, with star-forming clouds and dark dust along the arms, all placed in 3D.
Framed for a desktop
Tilted and off centre like a picture, the bulge to one side, the arms sweeping off the frame and dark sky across one corner.
On the grand tour too
The Grand tour show flies out from the Sun past every planet to the Milky Way and a black hole, in one continuous flight.
Made to stay on
Made to run all day, quiet when hidden.
Under your icons
It sits beneath the desktop icons, widgets and the Dock. Clicks go straight through to the desktop, and it never takes focus from what you are doing.
Pauses on its own
When windows cover the desktop, a full-screen app is open, the screen locks or sleeps, or a screensaver starts, it stops drawing until the desktop shows again.
Easy on the battery
On battery or in Low Power Mode it drops to 15 frames a second, or pauses, whichever you pick. Its usual pace is 30.
Pick your world
The other live wallpapers.
One purchase gets every one of them, over 80 in all, and you switch between them from the menu bar.
Questions
Good to know.
Is this a photo of the Milky Way?
No one has photographed the Milky Way from outside, since we live inside it. The wallpaper draws a 3D model of it: its shape from published measurements of the bar, the arms and the disc, its colours matched to photographs of similar spiral galaxies.
Does the view change?
Slowly. The wallpaper holds one framing of the galaxy and the camera circles it, a full turn taking close to an hour, so the arms and the dust lanes shift against the bulge through the day. View and Zoom in the menu apply to the planet show.
Is it animated?
Yes. It is rendered live in 3D as you watch, the camera circling the galaxy slowly.
Do I only get the Milky Way?
One purchase of $2.99 is the whole app: every planet, the Sun, the Moon and Pluto, the Milky Way, the black hole, the ISS and the grand tour, over 80 wallpapers in all.
Will it slow my Mac down?
It is made to stay on all day. It draws 30 frames a second at the display’s normal resolution, stops completely when windows cover the desktop or the screen locks or sleeps, and on battery drops to 15 frames a second or pauses, whichever you pick.
Which Macs does it run on?
Any Mac on macOS 12 Monterey or later, Apple silicon or Intel. Everything it shows is inside the app, so it runs offline.