12 comments

  • wanick 4 hours ago
    Author here. It's a browser view of the Solar System at real scale, with its current state, plus the objects around Earth from the CelesTrak catalog.

    Data: CelesTrak TLEs (SGP4), asteroids and comets from JPL SBDB, spacecraft positions from JPL Horizons. Updated daily.

    Rendering is WebGL2, orbit propagation runs in web workers. The asteroid set (~30 MB) loads in the background.

    The time slider runs forwards and backwards; satellites appear and disappear by launch date.

    • ____tom____ 1 hour ago
      > It's a browser view of the Solar System at real scale

      Is it really? I don't think you could see the satellites, if they weren't drawn at 1000x scale. I am wrong?

      At real scale, i would expect to not see anything.

      • jsphweid 58 minutes ago
        I think it's pretty obvious the satellites aren't drawn to scale, given they don't change in size when zooming in/out.
    • boxed 1 hour ago
      A way to zoom that is faster than mouse wheel would be nice. Takes forever to zoom out a long way!
      • Oarch 1 hour ago
        Being able to zoom on mobile at all would be great. And a way to close all of the overlay panels!
    • wanick 58 minutes ago
      [dead]
  • karim79 20 minutes ago
    Beautiful site. I love how tranquil the scene becomes when satellites and spacecraft is unchecked. Thanks for that SpaceX (and others).
  • nugzbunny 1 hour ago
    This is amazing. Well done. How long did it take to make?
    • fnordprefect 1 hour ago
      Seconded. Great work.
    • wanick 53 minutes ago
      Thanks! It's a byproduct of another project, so hard to say exactly. A few evenings.
  • mcv 54 minutes ago
    There are way more asteroids near the Earth than I thought.
  • 1shooner 1 hour ago
    Almost 1 in 3 tracked spacecraft is Starlink, is that accurate?
    • Sayrus 1 hour ago
      Even more than that. Of the 35k tracked "Satellites and spacecraft", more than 12k are debris bringing Starlink to 1 in 2. If you look only at Active known satellites, around 2 in 3.

      From Starlink's page on Wikipedia: "Starlink accounts for approximately 75% of all active maneuverable satellites in Earth orbit"

    • gus_massa 1 hour ago
      Probably correct. Random link from 2023 (~50%) https://www.springco.co.uk/what-do-satellite-constellations-...
    • wanick 58 minutes ago
      [dead]
  • nephihaha 1 hour ago
    Quite incredible how much manmade crap there is up there, and much of it probably useless, and a potential problem for the satellites which are of use.
  • eutropia 2 hours ago
    What's with those giant blobs of asteroids offset in jupiter's orbit by like 60deg on either side?
  • einpoklum 2 hours ago
    Wow, speedy and convenient! Well done!

    Some insights:

    * There is sooo much space debris! Dead sattelites and rocket bodies

    * Starlink put up a hell of lot of satellites, too.

    * There is a pretty dense sphere of items around the earth at geo-stationary orbit, a bit like a mantle; but most of all in a circle on that sphere.

    • dylan604 1 hour ago
      Everyone talks about the ringed planets, but I've never seen Earth mentioned of having a ring. I've also never seen mentioned that the rings were not man made as a qualifier. Yet, there it is, very clearly visible when zoomed out.

      One of the things that I noticed was how far away Parker was from the sun. I know it has a crazy orbit, but seeing it at a scale reference just emphasizes how its orbit is complicated.

      Also, checking out the platforms around L2. Euclid and JWST are no where near each other which again, just emphasizes how much space there is in...space.

  • VladDanGeorgesc 2 hours ago
    Very interesting!
  • java-man 4 hours ago
    Super! Not easy to select or center on a planet though.
  • Musigsal 1 hour ago
    Cope, Earth is flat
  • jairofdez 4 hours ago
    great project!!!!