Free · in your browser · real NASA data
Fly from Earth to Voyager 1 and out across the Milky Way. Every planet, moon, spacecraft and asteroid is where it really is right now, at its real distance — computed from NASA JPL data.
Works on computers, tablets and phones. No download, no sign-up needed to start.
Live, as of . Distances are centre to centre; light time is how long light or a radio signal takes to arrive from Earth. The Moon is 373,229 km away.
| Object | From the Sun | From Earth | Light time from Earth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 0.459 AU (68.7 million km) | 1.125 AU (168.3 million km) | 9 min 21 s |
| Venus | 0.727 AU (108.7 million km) | 0.328 AU (49.1 million km) | 2 min 44 s |
| Mars | 1.563 AU (233.8 million km) | 1.640 AU (245.3 million km) | 13 min 38 s |
| Jupiter | 5.308 AU (794.1 million km) | 5.877 AU (879.2 million km) | 48 min 53 s |
| Saturn | 9.434 AU (1.41 billion km) | 8.434 AU (1.26 billion km) | 1 h 10 min |
| Uranus | 19.44 AU (2.91 billion km) | 18.84 AU (2.82 billion km) | 2 h 37 min |
| Neptune | 29.88 AU (4.47 billion km) | 28.89 AU (4.32 billion km) | 4 h 0 min |
| Pluto | 35.61 AU (5.33 billion km) | 35.23 AU (5.27 billion km) | 4 h 53 min |
| Voyager 1 | 172.0 AU (25.72 billion km) | 172.3 AU (25.77 billion km) | 23 h 53 min |
| Voyager 2 | 144.1 AU (21.56 billion km) | 144.0 AU (21.54 billion km) | 19 h 58 min |
| New Horizons | 65.74 AU (9.83 billion km) | 65.62 AU (9.82 billion km) | 9 h 6 min |
A scientific simulator you can actually play with.
True sizes and distances, from the ISS 400 km up to stars light-years away. Warp to anything in seconds.
The planets, the Moon and spacecraft from NASA JPL Horizons. Speed time up to 30,000 years per second, run it backwards, or jump to any date.
Make Earth 100× heavier, double the Sun or fling a rogue star through the solar system — and watch full N-body gravity play out. How it works
Nearby stars at their real distances, the galactic centre, the Magellanic Clouds and Andromeda. Our place in the galaxy
The asteroid belt from the JPL Small-Body Database, plus Voyager 1 and 2, New Horizons, JWST, Hubble, the ISS and Tiangong.
A touch layout with a joystick for free flight on phones and tablets, and a one-minute guided tour for first-timers.
As of 4 October 2026: Mars is 1.640 AU (245.3 million km) from Earth, Jupiter 5.877 AU (879.2 million km) and Saturn 8.434 AU (1.26 billion km). The table above updates every second, and the 3D simulator shows every planet at its real position for any date.
Yes. Sizes, distances and orbits are all true to scale, from satellites a few hundred kilometres above Earth to stars light-years away. Because space is so empty, planets look tiny when you see them together; name labels and edge arrows help you find them, and warp flies you to any of them.
Planet, moon and spacecraft positions come from NASA JPL Horizons, the same service NASA mission planners use. The 4,000 asteroids come from the JPL Small-Body Database. Star positions and distances come from published catalogues, and the surface images from NASA, ESA, ESO and Solar System Scope.
Positions are computed from JPL Horizons states and checked against Horizons for the planets and major moons. They are most accurate for dates near today; years away from the reference date, small perturbations that the simplified orbits leave out slowly add up.
Try it in the simulator: pick the Earth × 100 scenario or drag Earth’s mass slider. GalaxySim switches to full N-body gravity, where every body pulls on every other. The Moon, suddenly far too slow for Earth’s stronger pull, falls onto Earth in less than a day of simulated time.
The Sun — and Earth with it — sits about 26,700 light-years from the centre of the Milky Way, in a small spiral arm called the Orion Arm, roughly 67 light-years above the galaxy’s mid-plane.
It is free and runs in any modern browser with WebGL 2 — Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari — on a computer, tablet or phone. Nothing to install.
Yes. Students use it to see the real scale of the solar system, check where the planets are on a given date, compare planet sizes, and run gravity what-if experiments. Every object page lists the key facts with sources.
An orrery is a model of the solar system that shows the planets moving around the Sun. GalaxySim 3D is a digital orrery that also includes the Moon and planetary moons, spacecraft, 4,000 asteroids, nearby stars and the Milky Way.
Start at Earth. Tap any planet to learn about it, double-tap to fly there.
▶ Launch GalaxySim 3D