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

Pioneer 10

The first craft to cross the asteroid belt and reach Jupiter.

Pioneer 10 launched in 1972 into the unknown. Nobody was sure a spacecraft could get through the asteroid belt in one piece.

It could. In 1973 it became the first spacecraft to fly past Jupiter.

It carries a golden plaque showing a man, a woman and where Earth is, in case anyone ever finds it.

Its last faint signal arrived in January 2003. It's still coasting, silent, towards the stars of Taurus.

If you rode along

Total silence, with the Sun just a bright star far behind you. Nobody on Earth can hear you any more.

The numbers

Launched
2 March 1972
Visited
Jupiter (1973)
Last heard from
January 2003