Show HN: Real-time Solar System with 526k asteroids and all tracked satellites

space.bl2.net

376 pointswanick104 comments

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.

A way to zoom that is faster than mouse wheel would be nice. Takes forever to zoom out a long way!

Being able to zoom on mobile at all would be great. And a way to close all of the overlay panels!

Thanks, I've already fixed it.

> 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.

I think it's pretty obvious the satellites aren't drawn to scale, given they don't change in size when zooming in/out.

But this is a fundamental problem with using it as a 'space is crowded' argument.

I assumed they meant that relative distance from Earth or orbit is to scale, not that the size of the dots was to scale, but I could be wrong

Those are just UX elements -- indeed, no satellite other than maaaaaybe the ISS could be seen here. For one thing, anything in LEO would seem to be moving so darn fast that it'd be disorienting.

I imagine there's various similar problems -- Saturn's rings not having the exact right pattern, asteroids not matching their real shape, all the planets being perfect spheres, etc. But I think this resoundingly meets the bar for "a view of the Solar System". Maps and territories and all that, y'know? A quick sketch in a textbook can also be a "a view" while containing far less detail.

> For one thing, anything in LEO would seem to be moving so darn fast that it'd be disorienting.

They take ~90 minutes to orbit - it's not that quick. The satellites are actually moving at the right speed.

Good point, the page now says it: distances are to scale, the dots are not.

How are you sourcing the spacecraft positions from JPL? Are you just grabbing a huge list of state vectors?

My old day job was to compute asteroid positions for NASA telescopes, if you are interested in orbit prop you may be interested in: https://github.com/dahlend/kete

I made an asteroid only version of yours earlier this year, where it does full orbit propagation in workers: https://dahlend.github.io/ketev/

Yes, state vectors from the Horizons API for each spacecraft, refreshed daily. Thanks for the kete link, I'll take a look.

  >satellites appear and disappear by launch date

This uses the modern TLE propagated backwards in time (vs using historical TLEs), correct?

Yes, current TLEs propagated backwards. Past 90 days it's marked as an estimate.

Importantly, how are we doing in terms of coverage? Are we seeing the sky enough and clearly enough to have a few years worth of warning before we get dinosaur-ed?

I figured the experts here would care to express an opinion.

Good question! From working within the field, there are new missions like NEO (Near Earth Object) Surveyor whose mission is to identify objects that could possibly be hazardous. There have also been missions previously done to study the required response to alter trajectories of objects such as the DART mission. We will also have a much greater picture of asteroids and comets in the inner Solar System in the future as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory continues its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) over the next decade. People are definitely thinking about these problems!

Links:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/neo-surveyor/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-OvnVdZP_8

https://rubinobservatory.org/news/11000-new-asteroids

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_predicted_asteroid_imp...

Can you make a version for VR, mostly for those “have you seen this yet” moments? Just the same data, same rendering, free movement by grabbing space (though earth pov would be a nice bonus). I’d pay $1-10 and even $1-$10/yr

This asteroid is missing FWIW https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=20031...

Brilliant project and very well done.

That aside, it is just astounding that even a moderate laptop just plows through this as thought it is nothing.

I remember doing orbital calculations on a 486DX with about 30 objects at just barely 30fps thanks to the FPU. That was pretty good for me. Without the FPU you would get maybe 2FPS. Now, you can just throw a half million around at 60fps+ in a web browser. Crazy!

Beautiful site. I love how tranquil the scene becomes when satellites and spacecraft is unchecked. Thanks for that SpaceX (and others).

It is often pointed out that SpaceX wouldn't exist without NASA, so let's not forget to thank NASA too.

And NASA wouldn't exist without the USSR...? 8-/

And the USSR wouldn't exist without ...?

Seizing the means of production

Just spent a little time following Europa Clipper, it will fly by Earth very soon! If you zoom out from Earth, it's already pretty close. This will be its second gravity assist after Mars. Very cool site!

I did some star gazing at an official "dark place" and was really amazed at just how much constant motion you can see from satellites flying around

Celestia did all of this and more. 10+ years ago.

https://celestiaproject.space/

On a browser?

no ,you have to download,just checked..

Surely we can make room for cool stuff like this without implying that they're stealing or oblivious? The audiences are completely oblivious, and this one combines a stuff in a unique way (and I've seen/loved these kind of sites ever since finding out satellites are in freefall).

Not to mention that it's been in beta since at least 2016, seems mostly defunct, and the download page looks like this: https://sourceforge.net/projects/celestia/ Also, AFAICT, it didn't cover satellites at all.

> and the download page looks like this: https://sourceforge.net/projects/celestia/

The page that states "Please do not download Celestia from this repository. This repository has been abandoned, and the new source and website are here and here, respectively." for the past four years ?

Try: https://celestiaproject.space/download.html and https://github.com/CelestiaProject/Celestia for version 1.6.4

Both Celestia and Stellarium have "open data" file formats that come "standard" with downloads and "extra" from community forums - ie all manner of real and SciFi movie/novel objects can be added with name, bitmaps, orbits, etc.

As of September 29, 2026, there are 16,613 active satellites in Earth orbit, 11,128 of them Starlink.

A fun fact: Kessler syndrome is a runaway chain reaction in orbit. Collisions create debris, and that debris causes more collisions, and when something breaks into pieces, its mass stays the same but its total surface area goes up, and reflected sunlight scales with area.

I submit to you that our kids' kids won't be able to see the milky way galaxy because of this litter.

Starlink is too low to be a concern for Kessler Syndrome. They all deorbit on their own in a few years. 700-1,000km is the orbit that should be observed for Kessler risk. <500km is of no real concern due to atmospheric drag.

As a "this is also in current events" ( Successful Earth flyby improves Juice’s course to Jupiter - https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice/... )

Doing a search for JUICE as a spacecraft pulls that one up and shows its impressive pre-Jupiter orbital mechanics.

I had no idea that we there are SO many aesteroids that we keeping track of. How are we even doing that? How do we recognize one aesteroid from another?

this is awesome! website is extremely fast and responsive, well done.

crazy to think how much technology is orbiting around the planet and not bumping into each other.

question - is James Webb intentionally making a heart shaped orbit? :)

https://imgur.com/a/kHkGLBa

Ha, it's a halo orbit around L2. Turn on "Rotate with Earth" to see the loop itself.

Always wanted to see the asteroid belt's true density visualized; this really puts it into perspective. Impressive work keeping everything performant.

This is awesome! Thank you for building this.

I could find 3I/ATLAS using the search box for "ATLAS".

Would it be possible to also have the search for "interstellar" list objects classified as interstellar object?

Good idea. For now they have their own group in the list, "Interstellar visitors".

Done, searching "interstellar" now lists all of them.

Added an endless ambient mode with generated music: flybys, eclipses, missions, time-lapses. The ∞ button at the top, F for full screen.

Very cool.

I'm curious why is there a ring around earth - is that kind of a default position that a bunch of them automatically get given if there isn't more specificity in the data?

It's the geostationary belt, about 36,000 km up, where satellites stay over one spot on the equator. It's real, only the dots are much bigger than the satellites.

This puts it in perspective how much of satellites is just Starlink.

My thoughts exactly. I new it was a lot, but man!

How come the James Webb telescopes orbit looks like a taco?

It's a halo orbit around L2. Turn on "Rotate with Earth" to see the loop itself.

It would be nice to have a fun feature where we could vote for the most coolest asteroid. In a bracket way so we can see actual fandom battles.

Silly? Definitely, but who said the internet needs to be only ad-feeds-related stuff.

Anyway, nice work mate!

This is amazing. Well done. How long did it take to make?

Seconded. Great work.

Thanks! It's a byproduct of another project, so hard to say exactly. A few evenings.

A good showcase how easy it is now for LLMs to build these visualizations when the data is structured and available publicly - with the structured and publicly available parts being the main gatekeepers.

i mean... is it? i don't think the author mentioned using an LLM anywhere on this post

Middle dot (·) is an obvious telltale. Not as if it detracts from the work, but UI makes it quite clear.

Data is the remaining moat! (Though I LOVE the amount of accessible public data and WASM has really lowered the barrier to performant data driven UIs (webgl here though? Maybe it’s just agents), so not advocating for more moats, enjoying all the cool products )

Thanks for the great work!

Tracking ISS orbit combined with live feed [0] is amazing.

0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO9e9jnhYK8

Turning on asteroids is a jump scare

This is beautiful — handling 526k asteroids in real-time is insane. Is this Canvas or WebGL under the hood?

WebGL2, no engine.

I love this; also runs surprisingly smoothly (at least in browser; didn't check mobile). Also beautiful and hypnotic in motion. What's the next step that you want to take to develop it (not that there needs to be one)?

526k objects and it still feels smooth. are you culling by distance or doing something smarter on the gpu side?

No culling. The vertex shader solves Kepler's equation for every asteroid each frame, the CPU barely touches them.

Tangential, how do you identify what is a satellite in the night sky? They're not shown on Sky Map, the app I use.

Do you mean, with the naked eye? It needs to be quite dark - minimal light pollution.

Then some satellites look like stars that move relative to the actual stars. It's not too hard to find one with a bit of patience. It's pretty amazing.

I'm asking if there's something like Sky Map, where you point your phone up and it tells you what sattelite you're looking at.

This is great! Seeing it like this brings it home, space is getting congested, and Starlink rules.

Almost 1 in 3 tracked spacecraft is Starlink, is that accurate?

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"

Probably correct. Random link from 2023 (~50%) https://www.springco.co.uk/what-do-satellite-constellations-...

Feels like being in Elon Musks open air prison looking at that swarm of starlink satellites encapsulating the earth.

There are way more asteroids near the Earth than I thought.

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.

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.

Jupiter's rings, which are thin enough we didn't really notice until we sent a spacecraft there, have ~5,000,000,000,000 tons of material (plus or minus several orders of magnitude). The total mass we have ever launched to orbit is a good portion less than 100,000 tons and the vast majority of that is not found in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_ring

The only reason it appears like a ring here is the marker for each satellite or piece of debris is the size of a large city.

Amazing! I had no idea there were so many satellites, especially Starlink ones.

Real scale makes asteroids hard to see without magnification.

What's with those giant blobs of asteroids offset in jupiter's orbit by like 60deg on either side?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_(celestial_body)

Fun: 116 d/s with Earth/etc selected, gives a Sun "orbiting" the Earth/etc effect.

Bug: ISO DEB at 17 min/s looked normal, but at 2.8 h/s it became a solid-ish (lots of crossing lines) red ellipsoid on the opposite side of the Earth. Upon returning to 17 min/s, it snapped back, after some delay. Current-ish Chromium on linux/X11.

Feat: Pressing ESC deselects.

Feat: Perhaps spacebar could pause/unpause time? To avoid fiddly "note current time ratio by counting arrows or hovering, then click pause. Afterward, click the right place to restore time ratio".

UX: Would you believe I wrote a Feat for 'add a "Now" button to date popup', not "seeing" the current button? Hmm, perhaps move it between date and time ratio?

UX: Just now for me, upon page load, nothing is moving and the Earth seems a black ball (night over Africa, with night lights obscured by satellite dots). So I could spend several minutes exploring, without being both close enough and oriented to notice there's a texture map. Perhaps start positioned over the terminator (interestingly pretty) and with scaled time (interestingly moving; demos motion; draws attention to time zoom. Maybe 17 min/s?).

Issue: The planets maps are true-ish color, modulo intensity and shadow. The Sun is... not. Given that "the Sun is some color other than white" is so pervasive a misconception, reinforcing it seems... sigh. Can I interest you in a white field with a few pretty sunspots? Perhaps with limb darkening and tint?

Fixed most of your list: spacebar pause, Esc to deselect, a white Sun, and the debris orbit bug at high speed. Thanks!

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 actual use.

I hate to be the one to come here with a feature request but can you guys hurry up with the Universe already?

Super! Not easy to select or center on a planet though.

I love how smooth it is! Amazing work

No github repo? :(

Not yet, maybe later.

Thank you, this is terrifying.

thatssss impressive af

its really good, appreciate it

Very interesting!

this thing is so cool

OP is there a "keep current" affordance which updates constantly to show real-time positions?

I assumed the "play" button would do this; what I see is it pulsing with 1s/s and || indicated which I guessed meant "this is now PAUSE; and, update is one fps"...

...but even selecting e.g. a Starlink sat I do not see any motion.

Hug of death, or, misunderstanding of feature?

Not a hug of death. It runs live at 1 s/s, but at real time a satellite moves only a pixel or so a second. The middle button toggles pause, so your click paused it. Press it again, or + to speed up.

Oh man, it seems like my asteroid (Minor Planet 31689 - Sebmellen [0]) is missing.

[0]: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6711174

[1]: https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=20031...

You found it? Nice

No, it's still missing.

Found it! Search works by name or number, try "Sebmellen" or "31689".

I think they added it because I threw out the comment :D

Thanks for the heads up!

great project!!!!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com