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

Neptune

The windiest place we know. 2,000 km/h storms.

Neptune was found with maths before anyone saw it. In 1846, Urbain Le Verrier worked out where an unseen planet must be pulling on Uranus, and astronomers found it that very night.

It is so far out that one year here lasts 165 of ours. Neptune only finished its first full orbit since being discovered in 2011.

Its winds are the fastest in the solar system, reaching about 2,000 km/h. That's on a planet that gets about a nine-hundredth of the sunlight we do.

Its biggest moon, Triton, orbits backwards and shoots out geysers of nitrogen. Scientists think it is a captured world that will one day be torn apart.

Voyager 2 flew past in 1989, and it is still the only visitor Neptune has ever had.

If you stood here

Noon would look like a deep dusk. The Sun would be a very bright star, about 900 times dimmer than it is at home.

Fall into Neptune →

Its moon

  • Triton

The numbers

Width
49,244 km
One day
16.1 hours
One year
164.8 Earth years
Moons
16
Temperature
−200 °C at the cloud tops
70 kg on Earth weighs
80 kg here
Quick answers+

How big is Neptune?

Neptune is 49,244 km wide, about 4 times as wide as Earth.

How long is a day on Neptune?

One spin of Neptune takes 16.1 hours.

How long is a year on Neptune?

Neptune takes 164.8 Earth years to go once round the Sun.

How many moons does Neptune have?

Neptune has 16 known moons, and more are still being found.

How hot or cold is Neptune?

−200 °C at the cloud tops.

What is the gravity like on Neptune?

Gravity at the cloud tops is 11.15 m/s², 114% of Earth's. Someone who weighs 70 kg on Earth would weigh 80 kg there.