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A simple web-based model of the solar system [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2026-09-28  

Your Solar System is far from the first web-based model of the solar system, but it's the first one I've found that's easy to customize and move precisely backward and forward through time. There's even a slider to toggle between the solar system's true scale and an orrery-style view showing all the celestial bodies at once.

I made a 3D interactive solar system you can navigate and set to any date between 1000 and 3000. The positions of the planets and moons are computed from VSOP87-type models and checked against JPL Horizons data, accurate to within 30 arcseconds for planets and 30 km for the Moon over 1800-2050, so eclipses, alignments, and moon phases are physically real. It's still a work in progress, so feedback is wanted.

My specific need was finding out when the outer planets are at a minimum distance in the mid-23nd century (as one does). It's not hard to calculate, date-wise, but surprisingly difficult to specify with other models.

Previously:

• 3D atlas of solar system shows all the asteroids too

• Explore the solar system in an immortal transhumanist body

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