—
—
—
Real planets · real positions · NASA imagery — …
—
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. The Sun, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn and the Milky Way sky use the 4K (3840×1920) renders of the 8K originals; the other planets use the 2K set.
Star points: the 41,487 brightest real stars from the HYG Database v4.0 (Astronexus, github.com/astronexus/HYG-Database), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 and compiled from the Hipparcos, Yale Bright Star and Gliese catalogues. Each star is plotted in galactic coordinates so the star band lines up with the Milky Way backdrop; its point size and colour come from its real apparent magnitude and B−V colour index.
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·r0.58) 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.