Tongue In Cheek
Real-time tracking and visualization system for monitoring Anomoly C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), with live magnitude data, distance calculations, and predicted closest approach dates. The application features an interactive asteroid game visualization running in the background, with a fully functional screensaver mode.
This tracker was developed in response to emerging scientific data about comet C/2025 N1 (ATLAS). The system:
- Monitors brightness changes that could indicate unusual activity or composition
- Tracks distance and velocity with real-time calculations from TheSkyLive data
- Calculates closest approach using actual measured velocity rather than estimates
- Detects abnormal behavior when brightness increases unexpectedly (comets typically fade as they recede)
- Provides historical data from multiple sources (COBS, TheSkyLive)
Comet C/2025 N1 exhibits characteristics that warrant continuous observation:
- Interstellar trajectory (3I designation suggests potential interstellar origin)
- Brightness variability tracked across multiple observation networks
- Distance dynamics measured in real-time as it moves through the solar system
- Velocity calculations updated every 60 seconds for accurate approach predictions
- COBS (Comet Observation Database) - Community-submitted visual observations
- TheSkyLive - Automated astronomical calculations and ephemeris data
- Live Updates - Automatic refresh every 6 hours for magnitude, every 60 seconds for distance
- Real-time magnitude display with animated brightness indicator
- Distance tracking with km-level precision
- Days to contact countdown calculated from actual velocity measurements
- Contact date projection with automatic date calculation
- Acceleration/deceleration detection based on velocity changes
- Historical observations table showing latest data first
- Fullscreen asteroid game with enhanced visuals
- Auto-activation after 5 minutes of inactivity
- Multiple exit methods:
- Press ESC key
- Move mouse (outside UI elements)
- Click anywhere on screen
- Click the settings button (⚙️ → ✕)
- Game stats overlay showing active asteroids, UFOs, and bullets
- Smooth transitions between normal and screensaver modes
- Idle detection with automatic activation
- Background asteroid game with autonomous AI-controlled spaceship
- Interactive canvas overlay (transparent, non-intrusive)
- Large asteroid events spawning every ~14 seconds
- UFO encounters with targeting systems and combat
- Hyperspace mechanics for emergency evasion
- Collision detection and particle effects
- Screensaver overlay with game information and exit instructions
- Rate limiting (60 requests/minute per IP)
- Input validation for all external data
- XSS protection with safe DOM manipulation
- Security headers (X-Frame-Options, CSP, etc.)
- Data sanitization for scraped content
- Error handling with graceful degradation
- Vanilla JavaScript with Canvas API
- Real-time data visualization
- Autonomous game AI
- Responsive CSS Grid layout
- Screensaver mode management
- Node.js with Express
- Cheerio for web scraping
- CORS-enabled API
- In-memory caching system
- Background refresh jobs
// Uses multiple distance measurements over time
velocity = (distance_old - distance_new) / time_elapsed
// Filtered for accuracy (1-200 km/s range)
// Updates every 60 seconds// Based on current distance and measured velocity
seconds_to_contact = current_distance / velocity
contact_date = today + (seconds_to_contact / 86400) days// Comets should fade (higher magnitude) as they recede
magnitude_change = previous_mag - current_mag
status = (magnitude_change > 0.3) ? "abnormal" : "normal"- Node.js 18+ (for native fetch support)
- npm or yarn
npm installnode server.jsServer runs on http://localhost:3000 (or PORT environment variable)
REFRESH_INTERVAL_HOURS=6 # Magnitude data refresh interval
PORT=3000 # Server portReturns cached magnitude and observation data
- Auto-refreshes every 6 hours
- Includes source attribution (COBS/TheSkyLive)
- Provides brightness status (normal/abnormal)
Returns real-time distance to Earth in kilometers
- Refreshes every 60 seconds on server
- Calculated from TheSkyLive ephemeris
Health check endpoint
Direct scraping endpoint for diagnostic purposes
Direct scraping endpoint for COBS data
The background asteroid game features:
- AI-controlled ship that tracks and destroys asteroids
- Autonomous targeting system with smooth rotation
- Bullet firing when locked onto targets
- Large asteroids (80-120px) entering periodically
- UFO encounters that fire at the ship
- Hyperspace jumps activated in dangerous situations (8s cooldown)
- Collision detection between ship and large asteroids
- 3-second respawn after ship destruction
- Particle effects for explosions and hyperspace
Method 1: Manual Toggle
- Click the ⚙️ settings button in the top-left corner
- The button changes to ✕ when screensaver is active
Method 2: Automatic Idle Detection
- Screensaver activates automatically after 5 minutes of inactivity
- Inactivity includes: no mouse movement, no keyboard input, no scrolling, no touch
Method 1: Press ESC
- Simply press the Escape key to exit immediately
Method 2: Move Mouse
- Move your mouse anywhere on the screen (except over UI elements)
- Screensaver exits automatically
Method 3: Click Screen
- Click anywhere on the screen to exit
- (Except clicking the settings button, which toggles the mode)
Method 4: Touch Screen
- On touch devices, any touch input exits screensaver mode
When active, the screensaver shows:
- Title bar with "ATLAS SCREENSAVER" and live game statistics
- Game stats: Number of active asteroids, UFOs, and bullets
- Bottom info bar with exit instructions
- Full-screen asteroid game with enhanced visuals
- Smooth animations and particle effects
To change the idle timeout (default: 5 minutes), edit the screensaver code:
const IDLE_TIMEOUT = 300000; // milliseconds (300000 = 5 minutes)
// Change to: 600000 for 10 minutes, 120000 for 2 minutes, etc.- Rate limiting (60 req/min per IP)
- Input validation (magnitude: 0-30, distance: < 1 trillion km)
- XSS protection via
textContentinstead ofinnerHTML - Security headers (X-Frame-Options, X-XSS-Protection, etc.)
- JSON payload size limits (10KB)
- Error boundary handling
- Data type coercion and sanitization
- Client polling: Every 6 hours for magnitude data
- Distance updates: Every 60 seconds (server-side)
- Display interpolation: Every 1 second for smooth distance countdown
- Rate limit cleanup: Every 60 seconds
- Canvas rendering: 60 FPS via requestAnimationFrame
- Screensaver overlay: Minimal performance impact
Designed for Render deployment with:
- Static file serving
- Background refresh jobs
- CORS enabled for cross-origin access
- Automatic HTTPS on production
Production URL: https://atlas-c4gn.onrender.com
MIT License - Feel free to use for scientific research and education
Contributions welcome for:
- Additional data sources
- Enhanced visualization features
- Performance optimizations
- Scientific analysis tools
- Screensaver enhancements
For scientific collaboration or technical inquiries, please open an issue on GitHub.
Note: This tracker is for educational and scientific observation purposes. All astronomical data is sourced from public observation networks and calculated ephemerides.