3D Solar System Studio
A date-accurate 3D solar system you can spin, set to any date and drop into your design - photoreal, to scale, and fully editable.
Overview Extension #
A date-accurate 3D solar system you can spin, set to any date and drop into your design - photoreal, to scale, and fully editable.
3D Solar System Studio builds a real, three-dimensional solar system and drops it into your design. Pick a date and every planet moves to where it actually is, computed locally from real Keplerian orbital elements: the Sun, all eight planets with Saturn's rings, the Moon, the Galilean moons and Titan, the dwarf planets Pluto, Ceres and Eris, Halley's and Encke's comets, an asteroid belt and a Milky Way sky, each one toggleable.
One slider morphs the whole layout from an artistic, compact view all the way to true astronomical scale. It renders like a space documentary: photographic planet maps, a glowing Sun with a cinematic lens flare, a soft bloom glow, and fresnel atmospheres on the planets that have one. Add orbit lines and labels in your own font, color and size, and switch between a perspective and a top-down view.
Open it from the Extensions menu. The scene lands as a re-editable image layer that fills your canvas; reopen it anytime via Edit 3D Solar System Studio to change the date, the bodies, the effects or the labels. Export a smooth spinning time-lapse as a video.
Everything - the positions, the textures and the rendering - runs locally in your browser. Requires a browser with WebGL2 and real graphics, which every current desktop browser has.
Bodies, scene and presets Extension 9 items #
The left column: switch any body on or off, toggle the scene extras, and jump to a ready-made selection.
Body row
#Each body is a row with its own color dot and an eye that lights up when it is shown. Click a row to show or hide that body; hidden rows dim.
Planets
#The eight planets, from Mercury to Neptune, each at its date-accurate position.
Dwarf planets
#Pluto, Ceres and Eris. Pluto is placed by date; Ceres and Eris ride a fixed orbit shape.
Moons
#Earth's Moon plus Jupiter's Galilean moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto) and Saturn's Titan, each orbiting its parent.
Comets
#Halley's Comet and Comet Encke, shown on their elongated orbits.
Asteroid belt
#A ring of points between Mars and Jupiter.
Starfield
#A field of background stars behind the scene.
Orbit lines
#The elliptical path of each body. Toggle here under Scene, recolor under View.
Presets
#Grand tour shows everything; Planets only hides moons, dwarfs and comets; Inner system keeps the Sun and the four rocky planets.
Date and time Extension 3 items #
Set the moment the scene shows. Every date-accurate body jumps to its true position.
View and scale Extension 3 items #
How the scene is framed and how compressed the distances are.
Scale (artistic to true)
#One slider morphs distances and sizes from a compact, artistic layout to true astronomical scale, where the planets become the tiny points they really are.
Angle
#Perspective for a three-quarter view, or Top-down to look straight onto the orbital plane.
Orbit color
#The color of the orbit lines, chosen with the shared color picker.
Labels Extension 4 items #
Name the bodies on screen, in your own type.
Effects and background Extension 5 items #
The cinematic layer: glow, sun flare, atmospheres and the sky behind it all.
Glow
#A soft bloom that makes the Sun and the bright stars glow. Turn it off for a flat, diagram-like look.
Glow strength
#How strong the bloom is, from none to double.
Sun flare
#A cinematic lens flare anchored on the Sun, hidden automatically when the Sun is behind another body.
Atmospheres
#A soft glowing rim on the planets that have an atmosphere: Venus, Earth, Mars, the gas giants and Titan.
Background
#Deep space (a subtle gradient), Milky Way (a real panorama sky), Transparent, or a solid color.
Preview, insert and export Extension 4 items #
See it on your design, drop it in as a layer, or save a spinning video.
Show document
#Previews the solar system over your current design, so you can place it before inserting.
Insert solar system
#Drops the scene in as a re-editable image layer that fills the canvas.
Edit 3D Solar System Studio
#Reopens the studio for the selected layer so you can change the date, bodies, effects or labels, then Update.
Export spin
#Records a smooth time-lapse of the planets moving along their orbits as a WebM video.