Local Space — live map

Local Space — guide

A live map of the solar system and every star within 100 light-years, computed from real astronomical data. Directions are always true; radial distances are labelled by the rings.

Getting around

• Drag to orbit · right-drag / two-finger drag to pan · scroll / pinch / zoom bar to zoom toward your pointer.
• Arrow pad or keyboard arrows: the centre button (or Space) cycles ⟲ orbit → ✥ move → ± zoom.
• Click any object or label to fly to it and track it. Double-click empty space to return to the Sun.
• Keep zooming into a planet and its moon system unfolds; probes resolve into spacecraft; stars into glowing discs.
• The Go to… menu jumps anywhere: planets, spacecraft, asteroids, comets, and every named star.

Time

• Warp slider up to ~100,000 years per second; P or the button pauses; jump to any year with the Year box or ±kyr buttons.
• Dashed curves show each object's next 20,000 years; faint solid curves the past 20,000.
• Watch for real events: Apophis grazing Earth in April 2029, Halley returning in 2061, Barnard's Star sweeping past in 11,800 CE.

Scale

• Log fits everything from 1 au to the galactic centre on one screen (this bends straight star paths into arcs — a projection effect, not gravity).
• Linear is true proportion out to 100 ly. Dive toward the Sun and the map auto-engages Log so the solar system opens up; zoom far out to return.

How honest is it?

• Positions come from NASA/JPL Horizons (spacecraft), ESA Gaia DR3 (10,000+ stars), SIMBAD and the JPL small-body database — computed live for the current map time.
• Planet globes, moon-orbit distances and markers are enlarged (at true scale everything would be invisible); orbital periods, directions and alignments are real.
• Bright binaries use their measured orbital elements — true ellipse shape, relative scale, eccentric speed and current phase (Sirius B is where it really is today). Known exoplanets from the NASA archive orbit their stars at true relative scale with real periods and eccentricities; phase angles and orientations are schematic.
• Star paths are straight-line extrapolations — excellent for ±100,000 years; the galaxy's own gravity matters beyond that. Near-Earth asteroid orbits are approximate after their close encounters.