The asteroid belt is a three-dimensional place

NASA/JPL DATA · A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

Solar System Explorer

Loading UTC UTCForward · 86,400× · Paused

Playback speed

Date, time & custom speed

UTC date and timeSigned speed multiplier

1900–2100 overview. Each JPL trajectory has its own returned interval. Future UTC assumes no additional leap seconds.

Preparing the Solar System…

Follow object Cinematic orbit

A real Solar System, at your chosen time. UTC · 86,400×True distances · physical radii ×12; minimum-pixel markers · 0 rendered / … catalogedDrag to orbit · scroll / pinch to zoom · middle button or two fingers to pan

MAJOR BODY

Earth

Loading calculated positions

Trajectory window

Custom trajectory interval

Start UTC dateEnd UTC date

The returned day-aligned sample interval is shown above. Resource limit: 366 days per request.

Amber: past · cyan dashes: future. Long overview arcs are approximate; JPL requests are limited to 366 days.

Gold / violet crosses show osculating two-body perihelion / aphelion, independently of a loaded JPL path.

The white arrow shows instantaneous forward-time heliocentric velocity, including during reverse playback.

Distance from Sun: Not published
Distance from Earth: Not published (same-epoch Earth)
Heliocentric speed: Not published

Planetary centres use the existing JPL DE441 bundle in 2020–2036. Other dates, the Moon and Pluto use the documented Astronomy Engine numerical overview. Load a selected JPL trajectory for a bounded interval. Sizes: NASA fact sheets; surface textures: credited on the data-sources page.

Scene & display

Display scaleQualityObject labelsPlanetary orbitsSelected trajectoryIllustrative comet tails

Comet tails point away from the Sun. Activity, colour and dust curvature are illustrative, not measured morphology.

Live browser capture uses the existing Video Studio formats and plan limits. Sign-in is required to create/export.

A sparse family of separate worlds

The scene is a bounded sample of cataloged objects, not a continuous obstacle course. Rendered and cataloged counts are displayed separately. Increasing quality increases the marker budget without inventing extra bodies.

Inclination matters

Published ascending-node and perihelion angles orient each osculating orbit in the J2000 ecliptic frame. Tilt the camera to see the vertical spread rather than flattening the population into decorative circles.

From a population to one object

Background markers share one GPU point draw and a worker computes their approximate positions. Selecting one object loads its details and enables a more detailed path, focus camera and optional Horizons request.

From the cached JPL catalog

516 matching records in this bounded snapshot. Last fetched 2026-10-22.

Sources & scientific accuracy

NASA/JPL SBDB supplies catalog identities and orbital elements, Horizons supplies dated trajectories, and CAD supplies close-approach records. An encounter is a calculated passage, not an impact warning. Source dates, orbit solutions and available uncertainty fields are shown in the explorer.

Display radii, generic shapes and comet activity are illustrative. Read Tuduni’s time and accuracy guide or view data sources and credits.

External NASA/JPL documentation

These scientific references open external documentation in a new tab.