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

407 points · 112 comments · wanick

  1. wanick · · 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. ____tom____ · · 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 · · 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.
        1. philipwhiuk · · focus · HN ↗
          But this is a fundamental problem with using it as a 'space is crowded' argument.
      2. blindflag · · 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 · · 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.

        1. philipwhiuk · · 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.

          1. bbor · · 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 · · focus · HN ↗
        Good point, the page now says it: distances are to scale, the dots are not.
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