Putting the planets where they are tonight…

Every planet, moon, dwarf planet and spacecraft here is drawn where it really is right now, worked out from NASA JPL orbit data. Run time forwards or backwards with the bar at the bottom.

The Sun and planets

  • Sun
  • Mercury
  • Venus
  • Earth
  • Mars
  • Jupiter
  • Saturn
  • Uranus
  • Neptune

Dwarf planets

  • Ceres
  • Pluto
  • Haumea
  • Makemake
  • Eris

Moons

  • Moon
  • Phobos
  • Deimos
  • Io
  • Europa
  • Ganymede
  • Callisto
  • Mimas
  • Enceladus
  • Tethys
  • Dione
  • Rhea
  • Titan
  • Iapetus
  • Miranda
  • Ariel
  • Umbriel
  • Titania
  • Oberon
  • Triton
  • Charon

Belts

  • Asteroid Belt
  • Kuiper Belt

Spacecraft

  • Voyager 1
  • Voyager 2
  • New Horizons
  • Pioneer 10
  • Pioneer 11

Fall inside

  • Inside the Sun
  • Inside Mercury
  • Inside Venus
  • Inside Earth
  • Inside Mars
  • Inside Jupiter
  • Inside Saturn
  • Inside Uranus
  • Inside Neptune
  • Inside the Moon
  • Inside Europa
  • Inside Titan
Right now · live

Ceres

The biggest thing in the asteroid belt, and the closest dwarf planet.

On New Year's Day 1801, the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi spotted a faint dot that didn't belong. It was Ceres, the first asteroid anyone ever found.

For about fifty years it was counted as a planet. Then people found hundreds more like it, and Ceres was demoted. In 2006 it was promoted again, to dwarf planet.

It is about 940 km wide and holds roughly a quarter of all the mass in the asteroid belt.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbited Ceres from 2015 to 2018 and found bright patches glowing in a dark crater. They are salt, left behind when salty water from underground reached the surface and froze away.

Dawn also found a lone mountain about 4 km tall, Ahuna Mons. Scientists think it is an ice volcano that pushed up slush instead of lava.

If you stood here

You'd weigh about as much as a bag of shopping, and the Sun would look about a third as wide as it does from Earth.

The numbers

Width
939 km
One day
9.1 hours
One year
4.6 Earth years
Moons
None
Temperature
about −105 °C
70 kg on Earth weighs
2 kg here
Quick answers+

How big is Ceres?

Ceres is 939 km wide, about 7% of Earth's width.

How long is a day on Ceres?

One spin of Ceres takes 9.1 hours.

How long is a year on Ceres?

Ceres takes 4.6 Earth years to go once round the Sun.

How many moons does Ceres have?

Ceres has no moons.

How hot or cold is Ceres?

About −105 °C.

What is the gravity like on Ceres?

Gravity is 0.28 m/s², 3% of Earth's. Someone who weighs 70 kg on Earth would weigh 2 kg there.