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3D atlas of solar system shows all the asteroids too [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-09-02  

The Atlas of Space shows one star, eight planets, ten dwarf planets, moons, comets, asteroids, spacecraft and trans-Neptunian objects. All in slowly-orbiting 3D. Clicking on these celestial objects brings up a detailed encyclopedia entry about it; for example, Huygens. An exemplary interactive visualization, it's the work of Gordon Hart and the antidote to those "not even right" vortex animations.

This was a fun side project over Winter Break 2024 to learn orbital mechanics, browser animation, serverless deployment options, and of course facts about moons, asteroids, and comets. Building for yourself is a treat that I haven't properly enjoyed in some time. Source code is available on GitHub at @gordonhart/atlasof.space. … Shout-outs to a few enabling technologies/resources:



• JPL for its Small-Body Database

• Wikidata for its excellent query service

• SolarSystemScope for planet, moon, star textures

• Three.js for being an incredible library — performant, featureful, and straightforward

• OpenAI and Anthropic LLMs for 10x'ing the process of learning orbital mechanics and Three.js

Previously:

• Jupiter used to be bigger—much bigger

• Where in the Solar System Has Voyager 1 Wound Up?

• Excellent animation comparing the rotations of the planets in our solar system

• Very beautiful (and very expensive) watch contains mechanical solar system model

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/09/02/3d-atlas-of-solar-system-shows-all-the-asteroids-too.html

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