This colourful, kid-friendly model shows our Solar System: eight planets circling the Sun, each drawn with its own look — Earth's blue oceans, Saturn's rings, Jupiter's stripes. It's a gentle introduction to astronomy, the same science that guides real space missions to Mars and beyond, and it makes the vast scale of space easy to imagine.
angle = -2*pi * t / period — t is the simulation time and period is the planet's orbital period in Earth years, so each world sweeps around its circle at its own pace.
Jupiter is so large that about 1,300 Earths could fit inside it — yet it spins so fast that one full day there lasts only about 10 hours!
A fun, colourful solar system designed for young space explorers. Planet names, sizes and distances explained simply, with friendly colours and easy-to-understand facts about each world.
Simplified orbital mechanics with emphasised visual differences between planets. Educational labels make it easy for children to learn planet names and characteristics.
Click on any planet to learn about it. Watch the planets orbit — inner ones zip around while outer ones move slowly.
Jupiter is so large that 1,300 Earths could fit inside it. But it spins so fast (one day = 10 hours) that it bulges at the equator!
This is a colourful, kid-friendly model of our Solar System, built for young explorers aged roughly 6 to 11. The Sun sits glowing at the centre and all eight planets orbit around it, each drawn with its own recognisable look — Earth's blue oceans and green continents, Saturn's bright rings, Jupiter's swirling stripes and Great Red Spot. Click any planet (or the Sun) to open a friendly fact card showing its size, number of moons, the length of its year and a fun fact. Inner planets zip quickly around their small orbits while the outer giants drift slowly, exactly mirroring the real Solar System.
Behind the playful visuals is real astronomy: each planet's orbit time is scaled to its true year relative to Earth's, so Mercury races around in a fraction of the time Neptune takes for a single lap. This is the same science — gravity holding worlds in orbit around a star — that guides real spacecraft to Mars and beyond and helps astronomers find planets around other stars. Models like this make the vast scale of space, from a planet's size to the length of its year, easy and fun for children to imagine.
How many planets are in our Solar System?
There are eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The four nearest the Sun are small and rocky, while the four outer worlds are huge balls of gas and ice. Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006, which is why it is not counted among the eight.
Why do the inner planets move faster than the outer ones?
The Sun's gravity is stronger close in, so planets near the Sun must travel faster to stay in orbit, and they also have much shorter paths to complete. Mercury finishes its year in just 88 Earth days, while distant Neptune takes about 165 Earth years for a single trip around the Sun.
Which is the biggest planet?
Jupiter is by far the largest planet — about 1,300 Earths could fit inside it! Despite its size it spins incredibly fast, completing one full day in only about 10 hours, which makes it bulge out slightly at its equator.
Saturn's rings are made of billions of pieces of ice and rock, ranging from tiny grains to chunks the size of a house, all orbiting the planet. They are probably the remains of comets, asteroids or moons that were shattered by Saturn's strong gravity before they could form into a single moon.
Venus is the hottest planet, reaching about 465°C — even hotter than Mercury, which is closer to the Sun. Venus has a thick blanket of clouds and carbon dioxide that traps heat like a greenhouse, so it never cools down, day or night.
The Sun is a star — a giant glowing ball of hot gas. It is so massive that it holds about 99.86 percent of all the material in the Solar System, and its gravity keeps every planet, moon, asteroid and comet circling around it.
Earth has just one moon, which we simply call the Moon. Some planets have many more — Jupiter and Saturn each have over 90 known moons! Mercury and Venus, on the other hand, have no moons at all.
The Great Red Spot is a giant storm on Jupiter, a swirling hurricane wider than the whole Earth. Amazingly, it has been raging for hundreds of years, making it the longest-lasting storm we know of anywhere in the Solar System.
Mars looks red because its surface is covered in iron-rich dust that has rusted, just like old metal turns orange-brown. Mars is also home to the tallest volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons, which rises about 22 kilometres high — almost three times taller than Mount Everest.
Yes! Use the turtle button to slow the planets down and the rocket button to speed them up, so you can watch a whole year fly by in seconds. You can also use the Pause button to freeze everything, and the orbital-scale slider (or your mouse wheel) to spread the planets out or squeeze them closer together.