A world of ice and light.
Choose a date, or step across deep time.
Beyond 3000 BCE–3000 CE, this becomes an illustrative continuation of present-day ellipses. It does not predict future configurations, ancient moon systems, collisions or orbital evolution.
Planets, moons and their separation use the same physical scale. Light arrives from the Sun; exposure adjusts for viewing each world. Surfaces are static mosaics, not live weather.
For 1800–2100 CE, Astronomy Engine 2.1.19 computes the planets, Pluto, Earth’s Moon, and the four Galilean moons, using perturbation models and its dynamical-time conversion. These are geometric positions, without light-travel delay. Orbit-line overlays remain approximate mean ellipses.
Outside that modern-date window, planets use JPL’s fitted Keplerian elements, including eccentricity, inclination, changing elements and outer-planet correction terms. The near-date fit covers 1800–2050; the wider fit covers 3000 BCE–3000 CE. Earth is adjusted from the Earth–Moon barycenter using the modeled lunar position. Pluto uses a separate J2000 osculating ellipse from Horizons and a modeled Pluto–Charon barycenter correction; its positions are less accurate.
The other moons, and all moons outside the modern window, use JPL mean orbital elements, their reference-plane orientation, and approximate secular precession. These describe the geometry of the system, not precise moon ephemerides or eclipse predictions. We do not numerically integrate mutual perturbations, resonances, tides or relativity. The fallback JPL formula treats UTC as dynamical time.
Time travel reaches ±5 million years from J2000. Beyond the planetary fit, the model continues fixed J2000 ellipses. Deep-time configurations are illustrative, not reconstructions or forecasts. Accurate long-term moon positions and detailed surfaces for tiny unvisited moons are not known.
Two cataloged Saturnian moonlets, S/2009 S1 and S/2009 S2, have no mean elements in this JPL snapshot. They remain in search with an explicit unavailable-orbit notice. Moon radii absent from this catalog, and unavailable surface maps, are shown as illustrative proxies and labeled individually.
Planet maps: Solar System Scope / INOVE, NASA-derived, CC BY 4.0. Maps may contain reconstructed gaps and enhanced color. Neptune is desaturated toward its observed pale blue-green appearance. Earth has separate day, night and cloud layers. Saturn has radial structure, gaps and mutual planet/ring shadows; the other giant planets have faint rings. Asteroid and Kuiper belt particles illustrate populations, not individual tracked bodies.
Selected moon maps: NASA/JPL/USGS and contributing authors via Celestia; full image credits and licenses. Moons without included image maps use clearly labeled illustrative surfaces. Surface longitude, cloud patterns and ring brightness are visual approximations. Stars form a decorative background, not an astrometric sky catalog.
The left-hand Space probes browser includes a historical launch catalog and selected spacecraft trajectories from JPL Horizons. Flight paths are geometric heliocentric J2000 ecliptic vectors, sampled daily with denser launch and selected encounter windows. These include historical reconstructions and predictions supplied by Horizons; they are not live tracking. Fine orbital motion and maneuvers between samples are not resolved. Voyager’s early planetary tours are approximate patched-conic reconstructions. Atmospheric rocket ascent and spacecraft attitude are not simulated. The marker is enlarged. Missions with missing intervals, late-only coverage or unreviewed chapters are visibly disabled. Readiness means sufficient sampled coverage for a tour, not navigation-grade accuracy. Full route shows the whole included path; flown trail ends at the selected time. The guided tour smoothly varies speed around reviewed chapters; other clock speeds use uniform time. Tours exclude the archive’s future prediction extension.
Drag to turn the scene in the same direction as your hand; arrows also orbit. Scroll or pinch to zoom; Shift-drag, right-drag or middle-drag to pan. Explore searches every world. F resets the Explorer view (or restores the mission Director), +/− zoom, O resets the Overview, G toggles guides, H hides controls, and Space pauses time. Moon-system view fits the regular satellites; zoom out to see the distant irregular moons.
Finding our place in the universe…