Explore the Solar System: An Interactive 3D Guide
Blast off without leaving your chair! In this interactive 3D model you can spin the whole solar system, fly to any planet, see where the planets were on your birthday, find out how much you would weigh on other worlds, and test yourself with a fun space quiz. Everything is written in friendly English to help you learn new science words while you explore.
How to Use
- 🌍 Explore: Drag to spin the solar system, scroll or pinch to zoom, and click any planet to fly to it and read its info card with key vocabulary words.
- ▶ Guided Tour: Press the Guided Tour button and the camera will visit the Sun and every planet in order while you read along. You can pause, skip, or end the tour any time.
- 📏 Size: See the Sun, planets, and Moon lined up at their true sizes. Tap any world to learn how many Earths could fit inside it!
- 🚀 Trip: Pick a destination and find out how long the journey would take by car, plane, rocket — or even at the speed of light.
- 🌗 Moon: Choose any date (your birthday works!) to see the Moon's phase that night and where the Moon really was around Earth.
- 🍂 Seasons: Discover why Earth's 23.4-degree tilt — shown as a red axis line — gives us spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Press "Watch a full year" to see Earth complete one whole orbit!
- 🎂 Birthday: Pick your birthday and watch the planets jump to where they were in space on that day (a close approximation). The panel hides itself so you can enjoy the view — tap the eye button to bring it back.
- ⚖️ Weight: Type your weight in kilograms or pounds to discover how heavy you would be on the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and more.
- 🧠 Quiz: Answer 10 questions drawn from a bigger question pool, read the friendly explanations, and try to beat your best score!
- Toggles: Use the Mission Controls to switch the orbit lines, planet labels, starfield, and Pluto with the asteroid belt on or off. The round 🙈 button hides every panel for a clean, full view of space.
Fun Space Facts
- ☀️ The Sun is so big that about 1.3 million Earths could fit inside it.
- 🪐 Saturn is lighter than water for its size — with a big enough bathtub, it would float!
- 🔴 Mars has the tallest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons. It is almost three times taller than Mount Everest.
- 💨 Neptune’s winds can blow faster than 2,000 km per hour — faster than a fighter jet.
- 🌀 Uranus spins on its side, so each of its seasons lasts about 21 years.
- 🌕 The Moon is slowly drifting away from Earth — about 3.8 centimeters every year.