Thread

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

407 points · 112 comments · wanick

wanick · 1790710695 · focus · HN ↗
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.
1. boxed · 1790719089 · focus · HN ↗
  A way to zoom that is faster than mouse wheel would be nice. Takes forever to zoom out a long way!
  1. Oarch · 1790719231 · focus · HN ↗
    Being able to zoom on mobile at all would be great. And a way to close all of the overlay panels!
    wanick · 1790725674 · focus · HN ↗
    Thanks, I've already fixed it.
2. ____tom____ · 1790720056 · focus · HN ↗
  > 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.
  1. jsphweid · 1790721680 · focus · HN ↗
    I think it's pretty obvious the satellites aren't drawn to scale, given they don't change in size when zooming in/out.
    philipwhiuk · 1790763764 · focus · HN ↗
    But this is a fundamental problem with using it as a 'space is crowded' argument.
  2. blindflag · 1790729509 · focus · HN ↗
    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
  3. bbor · 1790740979 · focus · HN ↗
    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.
    philipwhiuk · 1790763710 · focus · HN ↗
    > 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.
    bbor · 1790807684 · focus · HN ↗
    Sorry, to clarify: if you zoomed in close enough to see the actual objects without digital labels, then they’d be going very fast
  4. wanick · 1790784731 · focus · HN ↗
    Good point, the page now says it: distances are to scale, the dots are not.
3. [deleted] · 1790721650 · focus · HN ↗
  [deleted]
4. ddahlen · 1790729814 · focus · HN ↗
  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: <a href="https://github.com/dahlend/kete" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/dahlend/kete
  I made an asteroid only version of yours earlier this year, where it does full orbit propagation in workers: <a href="https://dahlend.github.io/ketev/" rel="nofollow">https://dahlend.github.io/ketev/
  1. wanick · 1790757902 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes, state vectors from the Horizons API for each spacecraft, refreshed daily. Thanks for the kete link, I'll take a look.
5. schiffern · 1790757310 · focus · HN ↗
  >satellites appear and disappear by launch date
  This uses the modern TLE propagated backwards in time (vs using historical TLEs), correct?
  1. wanick · 1790768955 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes, current TLEs propagated backwards. Past 90 days it's marked as an estimate.
6. laylower · 1790763652 · focus · HN ↗
  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.
  1. gridmap · 1790770667 · focus · HN ↗
    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:
    <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/mission/neo-surveyor/" rel="nofollow">https://science.nasa.gov/mission/neo-surveyor/
    <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-OvnVdZP_8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-OvnVdZP_8
    <a href="https://rubinobservatory.org/news/11000-new-asteroids" rel="nofollow">https://rubinobservatory.org/news/11000-new-asteroids
  2. dmbche · 1790782984 · focus · HN ↗
    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_predicted_asteroid_impacts_on_Earth" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_predicted_asteroid_imp...
7. joshspankit · 1790776063 · focus · HN ↗
  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
8. sebmellen · 1790780362 · focus · HN ↗
  This asteroid is missing FWIW <a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=20031689" rel="nofollow">https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=20031...
9. fouc · 1790880859 · focus · HN ↗
  I would love to filter for asteroids that have orbits that bring them into within a certain range of a target body like earth.
  1. wanick · 1790945021 · focus · HN ↗
    Good idea, noted. For now an asteroid's card shows if it's near-Earth (Apollo, Aten, Amor).

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.