Home▸Space & Astronomy▸How Astronomers Classify an Exoplanet

🪐 How Astronomers Classify an Exoplanet

An interactive 3D solar system where adjusting a simulated exoplanet's mass, radius and orbital distance classifies it live into categories like hot Jupiter, super-Earth or ice giant.

Space & Astronomy3DModerate60 FPS

Set a simulated exoplanet's mass, radius and orbital distance and watch it slot live into a real classification category — hot Jupiter, super-Earth, ice giant or potentially habitable rocky world — exactly as astronomers reason from transit and radial-velocity data.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Mass and radius combine into bulk density, which separates rocky from gas-wrapped worlds; orbital distance relative to the host star's habitable zone then determines whether a rocky planet could host liquid water.

🎮 How to Use

Drag the mass, radius and orbital-distance sliders, switch the host star type, and watch the classification badge, density, equilibrium temperature and habitable-zone status update instantly as the planet orbits.

💡 Did You Know?

Planets between about 1.5 and 2 Earth radii are surprisingly rare — a "radius valley" splits them into dense rocky super-Earths and puffy, gas-wrapped sub-Neptunes, likely because early stellar radiation strips thin atmospheres away.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 3D solar system where adjusting a simulated exoplanet's mass, radius and orbital distance classifies it into categories like hot Jupiter, super-Earth or ice giant.

exoplanetsexoplanet-classificationplanetary-sciencehabitable-zoneastronomy

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install