Cosmic Atlas
Explore the Solar System
An interactive 3D journey through the Sun, planets, moons, dwarf planets, asteroids and comets — placed where they really are, using real orbital data.
Drag to rotate · scroll or pinch to zoom · right-drag to pan. Planet positions are calculated for the date shown from JPL's published Keplerian elements (Standish, valid 1800–2050); Ceres and Eris use simplified fixed elements, and the asteroid belt is an illustrative scatter, not catalogued asteroids.
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Sizes and distances
Sizes
Diameters drawn to the same scale.
- Mercury4,879 km
- Venus12,100 km
- Earth12,740 km
- Moon3,475 km
- Mars6,779 km
- Ceres939.4 km
- Jupiter139,800 km
- Saturn116,500 km
- Uranus50,720 km
- Neptune49,240 km
- Pluto2,376 km
- Eris2,326 km
Distances from the Sun
Mean distance from the Sun (semi-major axis).
- Mercury0.3871 AU · 57.91 M km
- Venus0.7233 AU · 108.2 M km
- Earth1 AU · 149.6 M km
- Mars1.524 AU · 227.9 M km
- Ceres2.768 AU · 414 M km
- Jupiter5.203 AU · 778.3 M km
- Saturn9.537 AU · 1,427 M km
- Uranus19.19 AU · 2,871 M km
- Neptune30.07 AU · 4,498 M km
- Pluto39.48 AU · 5,906 M km
- Eris67.86 AU · 10,150 M km
Light takes about 8.3 minutes to reach Earth and about 4.2 hours to reach Neptune.
About the scale
The Solar System is almost entirely empty space. If Earth were a 1 cm marble, the Sun would be a 1.1 m ball 117 m away and Neptune would orbit 3.5 km from it. No screen can show true sizes and true distances together, so the atlas offers two views:
- Educational view — distances are compressed with a square-root law (6 × √distance in AU) and planet sizes are enlarged on a power law. Directions and orbital order are correct; sizes and spacing are not physically accurate.
- Scientific view — distances are linear at 10 scene units per astronomical unit. Planet sizes are shown at true scale (×1) or with an explicitly stated magnification; the Sun is capped at ×20 so it does not swallow the inner planets.
How positions are calculated
Planet positions use the Keplerian elements and century rates published by JPL (E. M. Standish, valid 1800–2050), solved with Kepler's equation for the date shown. Accuracy is a fraction of a degree — excellent for visualisation, not for navigation. The Moon is drawn on a simplified circular orbit with an enlarged gap so it stays visible. Comet positions use two-body orbits from rounded JPL Small-Body Database elements.
Prefer text? The Planet Guide lists every body's data in accessible tables, and the Kepler's third law calculator shows the physics behind the orbits.
Planet textures: Solar System Scope (CC BY 4.0), based on NASA mission imagery.