NASA has introduced a web-based orrery showing a real-time simulated view of our solar system, with planets, moons and spacecraft shown where they are right now. Go to solarsystem.nasa.gov and click on the solar system icon in the menu.
The orrery is a lightweight, mobile-friendly version of NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System software.
“This snapshot of our solar system focuses on active NASA planetary science missions and select ESA missions. Showcasing the entire operating NASA fleet is too much of a data wallop at the moment (but we are working on it). International missions such as Japan’s Akatsuki (orbiting Venus) and ESA’s BepiColombo (en route to Mercury) are not yet available.”
The orrery is a WebGL application – it’s performance will be better on systems with accelerated graphics.
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Additional Resources
Solar System Exploration Missions
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
NASA Eyes on the Solar System is an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator – free for the PC/MAC. I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
