16 spaceship window views, from the Sun to a black hole

Lofi Worlds now has 16 windows. Each one is a spaceship window view. You sit in the ship's cabin, the lofi plays, and outside the glass the Sun throws off flares, the Earth turns with its cities lit, or a black hole's disk wraps around its shadow. The views start as paintings and then move slowly, so you can leave one on for hours while you study, work or fall asleep.

The 16 spaceship window views

The windows run in travel order, outward from the Sun.

• Sun Window. The Sun fills the glass behind the ship's darkened shield. Flares rise off its edge, its surface boils, and every few minutes a big eruption flings glowing blobs out into space.
• Mercury Window. The ship sits off Mercury in the full blaze of the Sun. The planet turns once in ten minutes, its golden sodium tail streams away from the Sun, and BepiColombo, the European and Japanese mission to Mercury, drifts by.
• Venus Window. Above the clouds of Venus, the cloud tops race around the planet and lightning flickers on the night side. Now and then a capsule falls toward Venus and burns in as a glowing streak.
• Earth Window. The Earth turns once in eight minutes, its city lights on the night side and the aurora rippling along the top. The International Space Station glides across its face, and a train of five satellites passes by.
• Moon Window. The ship skims low over the Moon with the Earth hanging above the horizon. The cratered ground slides slowly away beneath you, and the Earth turns once in ten minutes.
• Mars Window. A dust storm winds and loosens over Mars as it turns, and Phobos races across the face of the planet every couple of minutes. A crewed ship glides past nose first, its engines glowing.
• Jupiter Window. Jupiter turns about once in six minutes, its bands sliding past each other, and the Great Red Spot comes around. Io drifts in front and lightning flickers on the night side.
• Red Spot Window. You're low over Jupiter's cloud tops with the Great Red Spot turning below. Its white collar goes around in two minutes, and the storm's eye turns slowest of all.
• Europa Window. You stand on Europa's cracked ice under Jupiter while three fountains of ice spray into the sky. They swell and sink and burst higher now and then, and chunks of ice tumble down in slow, high arcs in the low gravity. Hubble has seen what look like plumes of water vapor rising off the real Europa.
• Io Window. You're parked low over Io's lava plains with Jupiter on the horizon. Two volcanoes throw up fountains of glowing lava that arc out and rain back down on their cones, cooling from white-hot to red as they fall. Steam rises from vents all across the plains, and each vent puffs at its own pace.
• Saturn Window. Saturn's rings flow past, the inner ones faster than the outer ones, with ice chunks bobbing and glinting in front. The Cassini spacecraft drifts by and Titan hangs in the distance.
• Hexagon Window. You're low over Saturn's north pole, where the six-sided storm called the hexagon circles a vortex that turns slowly at its center. Storm clouds rise along its walls and thin away, lightning flickers inside them, and a faint aurora glows over the edge of the planet. Mimas, Enceladus and Titan swing out past the rings, and Cassini drifts by now and then.
• Uranus Window. Uranus lies on its side with its rings standing on end, and it turns once in ten minutes. Its moons rise and fall past the planet as they go around.
• Neptune Window. Neptune turns once in eight minutes, its great dark storm racing on ahead of the clouds, while Triton swings slowly around it, backwards.
• Dark Spot Window. You're low over Neptune's clouds, where the eye of the Great Dark Spot spins slowly and the cloud bands slide past each other. Lightning flickers inside the storm now and then. Beyond the rings a moon turns, and every minute or two the Sun flares just past the edge of the glass.
• Black Hole Window. A black hole's glowing disk turns around its shadow, and its light bends over the top and under the bottom. Rocks fall in and stretch out as they go, and every few minutes a faint galaxy drifts behind it and bends into arcs.

One cabin in every window

You watch every window from the same cabin. The listener in headphones nods on each beat of the song, and the lamps on the console pulse with the bass. The monitor in the middle of the dash is a music visualizer that bounces with the song and scrolls its title along the top. A black cat sits on the sill, breathing, flicking an ear and looking around now and then, like the cat in our pixel worlds.

Ships and probes fly past the windows now and then. If they distract you, the ships switch at the top of the worlds list turns off the passers-by, and the space dust stays.

Fly from window to window

Open the worlds list and set the view to windows, and the list shows only the 16 windows. Pick one and stay as long as you like, or travel with the arrow keys and the ship jumps through hyperspace from one window to the next.

Members can also switch on the guided tour. In the windows view the ship moves on by itself every 3 minutes, outward from the Sun and around again, while your own music keeps playing, whether that's the shuffle, your favorites or a playlist. The monitor counts down to each jump, and traveling yourself ends the tour.

Halloween in the windows

With the Halloween theme on, the cabin dresses up in every window. String lights run along the window and the sill, cobwebs hang in the corners with a spider on its thread, paper bats hang across the top, and a jack-o'-lantern glows on the dash. The cat wears a witch hat, a plush ghost sits on the listener's chair, a blanket hangs over the chair's back, and a pail of candy waits on the dash. Now and then a witch or a pumpkin drifts past outside.

The theme also adds our 20 Halloween songs to the shuffle. It's for members, who switch it on with the pumpkin in the worlds list or on the account page.

Which windows are free

The Mercury Window is free for everyone, with no sign-up. The other 15 come with the membership, along with the window tour, favorites, playlists and the Halloween set, for $3 a month. Anyone can watch each of the other windows for a minute a day, and when the minute's up the music pauses there and picks up again in any free world. You can join from the account page.

All 29 pixel worlds stay free too, and our post on space lofi music walks through them.

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