The orrery
The Solar System, in motion
Each planet orbits at its true relative speed — Mercury races, Neptune crawls. Hover to identify a world, click to open its profile, and use the controls to slow things down or hide the orbits.
Tip: click a planet to read about it
True relative speed
Orbital periods are set to real ratios. Mercury completes a lap in about 88 days; Neptune takes 165 years.
Not to scale
Sizes and distances are compressed so everything fits on screen. The real gaps are thousands of times larger.
Lit by the Sun
Each planet's day side faces the Sun, so you can see the same terminator line a spacecraft would.