3D Solar System Simulator | Interactive, Free, NASA Data

Velocità: 1 giorno/anno

Scala: Visiva

NASA Data Powered

An interactive journey through the eight planets, the five dwarf planets, their moons and the orbits of the Solar System, rebuilt with the precision of NASA data: sizes, distances and motions true to reality.

Planets

Dwarf planets

465

Moons

1:1M

Distance scale

1:25K/1M

Size scale

4.6B

Years of history

Scientific Characteristics of the Planets

From size to composition, from orbits to moons: here are the numbers behind every planet. All values come from the official NASA Planetary Fact Sheets, updated to the latest measurements.

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Read each planet's full profile Discover how the Solar System formed

Sun - Our star

The beating heart of the solar system, the Sun alone holds 99.86% of its entire mass. It has a diameter of 1,392,700 km and a surface that nears 5,500 °C, while its core reaches 15 million degrees. This yellow dwarf, of spectral type G2V, has been shining for about 4.6 billion years.

Mercury - The closest planet to the Sun

The smallest of the planets and the closest to the Sun, Mercury has a diameter of 4,879 km and orbits just 57.9 million km from our star, completing a lap in 88 Earth days. With no real atmosphere, it endures extreme temperature swings, from -180 °C to +430 °C, and its surface is pockmarked with craters, much like the Moon.

Venus - The hottest planet

The second planet from the Sun and the hottest of all, Venus owes this record to a runaway greenhouse effect. Almost as large as Earth, with a diameter of 12,104 km, it orbits 108.2 million km from the Sun in 225 days. Its surface reaches 465 °C, and the planet spins backwards so slowly that a single Venusian day lasts 243 Earth days.

Earth - Our planet

The third planet from the Sun and the only place we know to host life, Earth has a diameter of 12,756 km and orbits 149.6 million km from our star, the distance astronomers call an Astronomical Unit. It completes one lap in 365.25 days, is accompanied by a single natural satellite, the Moon, and is wrapped in an atmosphere made mostly of nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%).

Mars - The red planet

The fourth planet from the Sun, Mars owes its reddish color to rust, the iron oxide that coats its desert plains. With a diameter of 6,792 km it orbits 227.9 million km from the Sun, completing a year in 687 Earth days. It is home to Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system at nearly 22 km high, while two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, keep it company.

Jupiter - The gas giant

No planet is as big as Jupiter: 142,984 km across, eleven times the size of Earth. It orbits 778.5 million km from the Sun and takes 11.86 years to complete a lap. Around it circle 115 confirmed satellites (IAU count as of June 2026), including the four great Galilean moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Its Great Red Spot is a colossal storm that has raged for over 350 years.

Saturn - Lord of the rings

The sixth planet from the Sun, Saturn is famous for its spectacular system of ice and rock rings. It has a diameter of 120,536 km and orbits 1,432 million km from our star, completing a lap in 29.46 years. It is the planet with the most moons in the entire solar system, 293 confirmed satellites (IAU count as of June 2026), among them Titan, the only moon with a dense atmosphere.

Uranus - The ice giant

The seventh planet from the Sun, Uranus is famous for rotating almost lying on its side, with its axis tilted a full 98 degrees. Its diameter is 51,118 km and it orbits 2,867 million km from the Sun, taking 84 years to complete a lap. Methane in its atmosphere gives it that distinctive blue-green color; it is surrounded by 29 known moons and a faint ring system.

Neptune - The farthest planet

The eighth and most distant planet in the solar system, Neptune has a diameter of 49,528 km and orbits 4,515 million km from the Sun, so far away that a single orbit takes 165 years. Its atmosphere is swept by the fastest winds in the solar system, reaching nearly 2,100 km/h. Of its 16 known moons the largest is Triton, which travels its orbit in a retrograde direction.

Ceres - The dwarf planet in the asteroid belt

At 939 km across, Ceres is the largest body in the main asteroid belt and accounts on its own for about a quarter of the belt's mass. It orbits 414 million km from the Sun and takes 4.6 years to complete one lap. NASA's Dawn spacecraft revealed a crust rich in water ice and craters dotted with bright deposits of carbonate salts, the sign of brines that welled up from below.

Pluto - The former ninth planet

Regarded as a planet from 1930 to 2006, Pluto is 2,377 km across and follows a steeply inclined (17°) and eccentric orbit that carries it from 4.4 to 7.4 billion km from the Sun — so much so that for twenty years out of every 248-year lap it sits closer to the Sun than Neptune does. In 2015 the New Horizons probe revealed its great heart-shaped plain of frozen nitrogen, Sputnik Planitia. Its moon Charon is so large that the system's barycentre falls outside Pluto's surface.

Haumea - The fastest-spinning dwarf planet

Haumea completes one rotation in just 3.9 hours: the fastest of any large body in the Solar System, quick enough that centrifugal force has stretched it into an ellipsoid measuring 2,322 by 1,704 by 1,026 km. It orbits 6.4 billion km from the Sun with a period of 283 years. In 2017 a stellar occultation revealed a ring around it, the first ever observed around a trans-Neptunian object.

Makemake - Methane ice in the Kuiper Belt

Second only to Pluto in brightness within the Kuiper Belt, Makemake is about 1,430 km across and orbits 6.8 billion km from the Sun, taking 307 years per lap. Its surface is coated in frozen methane and ethane, which give it a reddish tint. Discovered in 2005, it is named after the creator of humanity in Easter Island mythology.

Eris - The most massive dwarf planet

It was the discovery of Eris in 2005 that forced a formal definition of "planet", and with it Pluto's demotion. At 2,326 km across it is marginally smaller than Pluto but 27% more massive. Its orbit is extreme: inclined 44° to the plane of the Solar System and eccentric enough to carry it from 5.7 to 14.6 billion km from the Sun, with a period of 558 years. It is tidally locked to its moon Dysnomia, and so rotates once every 15.8 days.

Planet Size Comparison

Planetary radii comparison (in km)

Frequently asked questions

Answers to the most common questions about the Solar System and how this simulation works.

How many planets does the solar system have?

The Solar System has 8 official planets: the rocky Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars; the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn; and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. Pluto, long considered the ninth planet, was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union, along with Ceres, Haumea, Makemake and Eris: this simulation shows all five alongside the eight planets.

What is the largest planet in the solar system?

The title goes to Jupiter: with a diameter of 142,984 km it is about 11 times larger than Earth. Its mass is 318 times Earth's and alone accounts for roughly 70% of the mass of all the planets in the Solar System combined.

How does the 3D solar system simulator work?

The simulator uses Three.js for its 3D graphics and draws on real orbital data from NASA (JPL). Orbits are rebuilt with up-to-date Keplerian elements, planet sizes follow a relative scale, and the textures come from real images captured by space missions.

Which are the rocky planets and gas giants?

The rocky, or terrestrial, planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars: they have a solid surface and modest sizes. Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants, made mostly of hydrogen and helium, while Uranus and Neptune are called ice giants for their abundance of water, ammonia and methane.

Which is the closest planet to the Sun?

The closest to the Sun is Mercury, orbiting at an average distance of 57.9 million km (0.387 AU) and completing one lap in just 88 Earth days. It is also the smallest of them all, with a diameter of only 4,879 km.

How far is Earth from the Sun?

On average Earth lies 149.6 million km from the Sun, the distance that defines the Astronomical Unit (AU). Sunlight takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach us and, over the year, this distance ranges between 147.1 million km at perihelion and 152.1 million km at aphelion.

Why is Pluto no longer a planet?

In 2006 the International Astronomical Union redefined what a planet is, setting three requirements: orbiting the Sun, having enough mass to take on a spherical shape, and having cleared its orbit of other bodies. Pluto fails the last one, because it shares its orbit with many other objects in the Kuiper Belt.

Read the full Pluto profile

How do planets move in the solar system?

Planets travel along elliptical orbits around the Sun, following Kepler's laws. The closer a planet is to the Sun, the faster it moves: Mercury completes a lap in 88 days, Neptune takes about 165 years. Seen from the celestial north pole, they all orbit counterclockwise.

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Scientific Characteristics of the Planets

Planet Size Comparison

Frequently asked questions

3D Solar System Simulation

Scientific Characteristics of the Planets

Planet Size Comparison

Frequently asked questions