Atomic Explorer is an interactive science popularization application available on the web and as a desktop application for Linux. It allows students, teachers, and science enthusiasts to visually explore the atomic structure at different levels of complexity. It's the equivalent of a planetarium, but for the quantum world!
🌐 Try it Live in your Browser: https://arrase.github.io/atomic-explorer/
The quantum world can be abstract and difficult to imagine. Atomic Explorer solves this by offering an interactive 3D environment where you can:
- Visualize Atomic Orbitals in 3D: Observe the actual shape of atomic orbitals (s, p, d, f) where electrons reside. You can view probability densities and three-dimensional surfaces using advanced rendering.
- Explore the Interactive Periodic Table: Navigate through the 118 elements, filter by categories (such as alkali metals or noble gases), and discover their periodic properties, such as electronegativity or atomic radius.
- Learn Molecular Geometry (VSEPR): Understand how atoms bond to form molecules like water or methane, visualizing how electron pairs repel each other to form linear, tetrahedral structures, etc.
3D exploration of wave functions and atomic orbitals.
Access to all element information and configurations.
Visualization of hybridization and valence shell electron pair repulsion (VSEPR) models.
The application performs complex mathematical calculations and real-time 3D rendering (WebGL), so the following hardware is recommended for optimal performance:
- Operating System: GNU/Linux (Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, Fedora, or other modern distributions). Native support for X11 and Wayland.
- Processor (CPU): Modern multi-core processor (Intel Core i3 / AMD Ryzen 3 or higher).
- Memory (RAM): 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended for a smooth experience).
- Graphics Card (GPU): Graphics accelerator with WebGL support. Modern integrated cards (Intel HD, AMD Vega) or dedicated (NVIDIA, AMD) are supported.
You can try the application directly in your browser without installing anything: 👉 https://arrase.github.io/atomic-explorer/
For desktop installation on Linux, you can download the pre-compiled packages in the Releases tab of this GitHub repository:
The AppImage format works on almost any Linux distribution without installing anything on the system.
- Go to the Releases section of this repository and download the
.AppImagefile corresponding to the latest version (example:atomic-explorer_0.1.0_amd64.AppImage). - Give it execution permissions. You can do this from the file properties in your file manager (right click -> Properties -> Permissions -> Allow executing file as program), or from the terminal:
chmod +x atomic-explorer_0.1.0_amd64.AppImage
- Double-click the downloaded file to launch the application.
For distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, Zorin OS, etc.
- Download the
.debpackage from the Releases section (example:atomic-explorer_0.1.0_amd64.deb). - Double-click the file to install it with your system's Software Center, or run in the terminal:
sudo apt install ./atomic-explorer_0.1.0_amd64.deb
- Open "Atomic Explorer" from the system application menu.
For distributions like Fedora, openSUSE, RHEL, Rocky Linux, CentOS, etc.
- Download the
.rpmpackage from the Releases section (example:atomic-explorer-0.1.0-1.x86_64.rpm). - Install it from the terminal by running:
sudo dnf install ./atomic-explorer-0.1.0-1.x86_64.rpm
- Launch the application from the system menu.
This repository has an automated GitHub Action to generate and upload the installers (AppImage, .deb, .rpm) to GitHub Releases automatically when creating a new version.
To publish a new Release:
- Create and push a tag with the version (e.g.
v0.1.0):git tag v0.1.0 git push origin v0.1.0
- The
.github/workflows/release.ymlaction will automatically compile the WASM math engine, build the Tauri packages, and publish the release on GitHub with all attached installers.