Stellar Navigation Using Network Analysis by Caleb Jones.
To give you an idea of where this post ends up:
From the post:
This has been the funnest and most challenging network analysis and visualization I have done to date. As I've mentioned before, I am a huge space fan. One of my early childhood fantasies was the idea of flying instantly throughout the universe exploring all the different planets, stars, nebulae, black holes, galaxies, etc. The idea of a (possibly) infinite universe with inexhaustible discoveries to be made has kept my interest and fascination my whole life. I identify with the sentiment expressed by Carl Sagan in his book Pale Blue Dot:
In the last ten thousand years, an instant in our long history, we’ve abandoned the nomadic life. For all its material advantages, the sedentary life has left us edgy, unfulfilled. The open road still softly calls like a nearly forgotten song of childhood. Your own life, or your band’s, or even your species’ might be owed to a restless few—drawn, by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds.
Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, spoke for wanderers in all epochs and meridians: “I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas…”
Maybe it’s a little early. Maybe the time is not quite yet. But those other worlds— promising untold opportunities—beckon.
Silently, they orbit the Sun, waiting.
Fair warning: If you aren’t already a space enthusiast, this project may well turn you into one!
Distance and relative location are only two (2) facts that are known for stars within eight (8) light-years. What other facts or resources would you connect to the stars in these networks?