The planets are where they really are on the date you choose. Drag to rotate, press play to let time pass and tap a planet to see its facts.
September 15, 2026
The only planet with known life: liquid water, an oxygen atmosphere and just the right distance from the Sun.
The orbits are the real ones: ellipses, but almost circles. Earth's differs from a circle by less than 0.02%; textbooks draw them very stretched so the shape shows. What you can see is that the Sun is not at the centre: in orange, the perihelion (closest to the Sun) and aphelion (farthest) of the chosen planet. Try Mercury or Mars and zoom in.
Distances are compressed. At real scale, if Neptune fitted on screen, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars would be crammed next to the Sun. Try it with "Real".
The planets are drawn much bigger than they are: to scale with these distances they would be invisible. The Sun is not to scale either: it is about 10 times wider than Jupiter.
Positions are calculated from JPL (NASA) orbital data and Kepler's equation. They are valid from 1800 to 2050.
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