G—P
← Experiments After: Powers of Ten, Eames 1977 ↗ Elements: JPL SSD ↗
Experiment 006 · positions computed for today · click a body, scroll to go deeper · drag to pan · f to fly

Orrery1

Everything measured around the Sun, drawn to one logarithmic line — each ring outward is ten times the distance. The eight planets, Pluto and Eris stand where they stand today, computed in the page from the Keplerian elements JPL publishes; drag the date and the machine turns. Farther out, everything is real and in its measured place: the asteroid and Kuiper belts, the heliopause where the Sun's wind stops, Voyager 1 and 2 at the distances they have actually reached — three au farther every year — the theorized Oort cloud, and the nearest stars. Click any named body — planet, spacecraft or star — to see its true color, its moons turning at their real pace, and three lesser-known facts; keep scrolling and it opens into a page — vitals, six facts, and the story. The diamond brings you home. Or take the ride: one continuous pull-out from Mercury to Alpha Centauri, nine orders of magnitude without a cut.

1 Orrery: a mechanical model of the Solar System showing the relative positions and motions of the planets.

Imagery: NASA · JPL-Caltech · SSI · JHUAPL · SwRI · USGS · each photograph credited on its body.

antiquity
today
time, drawn on the same logarithmic line as space