SOLAR SYSTEM

Real planets · real positions · NASA imagery — …

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Time

Scale Move

Realistic mode: distances are compressed and planet sizes boosted so everything is visible — but planets keep their true size order and proportions relative to each other, and every position comes from real JPL orbital data.

Drag to orbit · scroll / pinch to zoom · click any planet (or its label) to fly to it. In Fly mode: WASD + Q/E, drag to look, Shift = boost.

CREDITS & DATA SOURCES

Planet & sun textures, Milky Way sky: Solar System Scope (solarsystemscope.com/textures), licensed CC BY 4.0, obtained via the Wikimedia Commons mirror of the same texture set. Textures are based on NASA elevation and imagery data.

Info-panel photographs: NASA (public domain), via the NASA Image and Video Library (images.nasa.gov): Sun — Solar Dynamics Observatory image; Mercury — MESSENGER “False Color View of Mercury”; Venus — “Venus from Mariner 10”; Earth — LRO Earthrise; Mars — Hubble composite of Mars; Jupiter — Juno portrait of Jupiter and Io; Saturn — Cassini “View from Above”; Uranus — “Uranus as seen by NASA Voyager 2”; Neptune — Voyager 2 “Neptune Dark Spot D2 at High Resolution”.

Orbital positions: computed live in your browser from the JPL table “Keplerian Elements for Approximate Positions of the Major Planets” (E.M. Standish, JPL, 1992; elements & rates referenced to J2000). Accuracy is arcminute-to-degree class — right for visualisation, not for pointing a telescope. Cross-checked against JPL Horizons (DE441): Earth’s heliocentric longitude agreed to ≈0.02° at build time.

Facts (radii, periods, tilts, moon counts): NASA Planetary Fact Sheet values; moon counts as recognised by the IAU in 2025 (Saturn 274, Jupiter 95, Uranus 29, Neptune 16).

Scale honesty: “Realistic” mode compresses distances (r → 26·r^0.58) and boosts planet radii by a single common factor, so relative planet sizes stay true to each other while the Sun is drawn smaller than life. “True scale” uses one unit for everything — real relative sizes AND distances; planets become specks, exactly like the real thing. Use the planet list to jump around.

Software: three.js (MIT), model-viewer (Apache-2.0) for the iPhone AR snapshot. Built by SunSiteVR. The AR snapshot model was generated from the same textures and the same JPL element math, for the build date shown on the AR page.