Moving up by a factor of 10, here is the shortest-possible tour through the 3D locations of the nearest 1,000 stars in the Gaia DR1 data set. Again, go ahead and pinch, swipe, click, drag, and scroll around the image to reveal the tour's 3D structure.
The tour and mathematical proof that it is shortest possible were found by the Concorde TSP solver in two seconds on a 4.2 GHz iMac, using the linear-programming, cutting-plane method.
Notes
For a guide to navigating the image, click the ⓘ button in the top right corner of the page.
Links to lots of information on the mathematical techniques we have employed can be found on the TSP home page.
Details on the point set for the star TSP instance are given on the Data page; further images can be found on the Tour page.
The tour is rendered with the three.js JavaScript 3D library.
We thank Michael Boyle for suggesting the use of color hue to indicate the order stars appear in our solution.