Space Time logo Space Time

A working model of the universe, in your browser

Space Time is a free 3D universe explorer. Check where the planets are tonight, or stand on the Moon and look up. Then keep zooming out: past millions of stars, the Milky Way, and the cosmic web. Nothing to download, no account.

Launch Space Time Runs in any modern browser · Works on desktop, phone & VR Real data, every object searchable and clickable
  • 2.5Mstars
  • 32,000+deep-sky objects
  • 43,500galaxies
  • 4,000+comets
  • 7,700asteroids
  • 187moons
  • 5,600+planetary features
  • 9,000live satellites
  • 4,500quasars
Real-time 3D solar system showing the Sun, planets and their orbits in Space Time

See it move

Screenshots only go so far for something built to fly through. A few short clips: the August 2026 eclipse going to totality, the zoom from Earth out to the cosmic web, a dive into the Milky Way's black hole. Tap any to play.

Every clip was recorded live inside Space Time, in a browser, with the app's own clip recorder. No external footage.

The August 12, 2026 total solar eclipse, building to totality.
“You are here”: the zoom out from Earth to the cosmic web.
Into Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way's black hole, lensing the stars behind it.
Flying between worlds: Jupiter to Saturn to Earth.
The Sun up close: a seething surface, prominences and corona.
Through the Local Universe to the Great Attractor.

A real-time 3D model of the solar system

Every planet, moon, dwarf planet, asteroid and live comet rides its true orbit, rendered with real surface maps at 60fps. Positions come from the astronomy-engine library, which is built on JPL ephemeris data, so what you see on screen matches the actual sky.

All the planets & moons

Mercury through Neptune, plus Pluto, Ceres and Eris. The major moons are full 3D worlds you can fly to and stand on, and every named moon (all 187, down to the small irregular ones) is searchable, along with the full database of every known comet (about 4,000). The asteroid belt is in there too, pulled from JPL.

Apollo & spacecraft

Replay the Apollo missions on their historical trajectories. You can also ride along with the ISS, Hubble, JWST and the Parker Solar Probe.

Travel through time

The clock scrubs forward and back through any date. Speed it up and alignments, conjunctions and retrograde loops play out in front of you.

Saturn and its rings rendered in 3D with the ring shadow on the planet
Saturn, rings and ring-shadow, tilted exactly as it is right now.
Jupiter with the Galilean moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto on their orbits
Jupiter with the Galilean moons on their true orbits and real surface maps.
The Sun rendered with a seething surface, prominences and corona
The Sun, with a seething surface, prominences and corona.
Earth in 3D with ocean sun-glint and relief shading from real elevation data
Earth with real relief and ocean sun-glint, lit by the actual Sun direction.

Stand on any world and look up

Drop to the surface of Earth, the Moon or Mars. The Sun, Moon, planets, constellations and the Milky Way appear exactly as they would from that spot at any date and time, so it doubles as a what's-up-tonight view. You can trace the Sun's analemma figure-8 onto the sky, or a planet's retrograde loop. Deep Time goes further: scrub through 28 millennia of axial precession and watch the pole star pass from Thuban, the pyramid builders' north star, to Polaris and on toward Vega.

First-person planetarium view of the night sky from the surface of the Moon
Standing on the Moon. The sky above is the accurate one.
Tonight's Best observing planner ranking visible planets and deep-sky objects
“Tonight's Best”: ranked targets for your location, right now.
The Sun's analemma figure-8 traced across the daytime sky over New York
The analemma, the Sun's year-long figure-8, traced in your sky.
Deep Time view of the sky in 2601 BCE with Thuban in Draco as the pole star
Deep Time: the sky of 2601 BCE, when Thuban marked the celestial pole.
First-person view of the Martian sky from the surface of Mars at dusk
Dusk on Mars, with the sky computed for that spot and moment.
The night sky from a dark site filled with stars, the Milky Way and constellations
A dark-site sky: 2.5 million stars, the Milky Way and the constellation lines.

Watch eclipses & sky events

The eclipse view predicts solar and lunar eclipses for any date and place, then plays them out: totality with the Sun's corona, or Earth's shadow turning the Moon blood-red, viewed from the ground or from space. There's a full sky events calendar too. Lunar occultations are computed for your location, and Jupiter's moons transit and cast shadows at the real times, including the rare double shadow transits. Every event opens in 3D with one click and exports to your calendar.

Total solar eclipse with the Sun's corona visible at totality
Totality. The sky darkens and the corona appears.
Apollo 11 mission trajectory from Earth to the Moon recreated in 3D
Replay the Apollo 11 mission in accurate 3D.
Voyager 2 at Neptune in 1989 during the Grand Tour mission replay
Voyager 2's Grand Tour, Jupiter to Neptune, on the real trajectory.
Europa's shadow crossing Jupiter's cloud tops during a shadow transit
A Galilean moon's shadow crawling across Jupiter, at the real times.
Sky events calendar listing Jupiter moon transits, shadow transits and lunar occultations
The sky events almanac. Every entry opens in 3D and exports to your calendar.
A total lunar eclipse turning the Moon deep red during totality
A total lunar eclipse, Earth's shadow turning the Moon blood-red.
The Moon's shadow crossing Earth during a solar eclipse, seen from space
The August 12, 2026 eclipse from space: the Moon's shadow sweeping across Earth.

From the solar system to the edge of the universe

Zoom out and the planets give way to the nearby stars, then the full Milky Way, then 43,500 real galaxies (the 2MASS Redshift Survey) forming the cosmic web, all the way to the cosmic microwave background. It's one continuous powers-of-ten pull-back, with no loading screens between scales.

3D view of the Milky Way galaxy with the Sun's position marked
Fly out to the Milky Way, with 95,000 real nearby stars you can click.
The Andromeda Galaxy shown with real deep-sky survey photography
The full NGC/IC catalog, with real survey imagery on the showpieces.
The NGC/IC catalog drawn as color-coded chart symbols over the Virgo Cluster, with Messier galaxies labeled
The Virgo Cluster of galaxies, every catalogued object drawn as a chart symbol you can click to identify.
The Sun's stellar neighborhood in 3D with the nearest stars at their real distances
The solar neighborhood: 95,000 nearby stars at their real Gaia distances.
43,500 real galaxies from the 2MASS Redshift Survey forming the cosmic web
43,500 real galaxies (2MASS Redshift Survey), the cosmic web at its true shape.
The Laniakea supercluster flow lines converging toward the Great Attractor
Laniakea's infall streams, every galaxy drifting toward the Great Attractor.
The supermassive black hole Sagittarius A-star gravitationally lensing the stars behind it
Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way's black hole, lensing the starlight behind it.

An observer's toolkit

Tools for people who actually haul a telescope outside. There's an ephemeris generator with almanac tables, brightness and distance graphs, and CSV export for any planet. A Moon phase calendar flags supermoons, and the clickable Moon atlas puts 277 named craters, maria and landing sites on the 3D globe.

Is it worth going out tonight?

A one-glance verdict for your location, scored from the real weather forecast: cloud cover, seeing (the jet stream), transparency, rain, the Moon and your light pollution (estimated automatically from your location). See the night hour by hour, how many hours are actually usable, and a seven-night outlook so you can pick the best evening to set up.

Planet Watch

What each planet has turned toward Earth right now: when the Great Red Spot next crosses Jupiter's central meridian, which classic feature faces us on Mars, how open Saturn's rings are. Hit "Watch it" to set the clock and fly to the Earth-facing side, with the spot marked on the globe.

Telescope & eyepiece simulator

Check how a target fits your scope, eyepiece or camera sensor before you set up. The field-of-view overlay is drawn to scale on real sky imagery.

Ephemeris generator

Generate almanac tables for any body: position, brightness, apparent size, over whatever date range you want. Export to CSV. Oppositions and best nights get flagged automatically.

ISS & satellite passes

Visible-pass predictions for the ISS, Tiangong and Hubble, computed from live TLEs with SGP4. It tells you when to go outside.

The whole satellite swarm

Turn on the full live Celestrak catalog, about 9,000 satellites, and watch them orbit Earth in real time, the dense Starlink shells and all. Search any one by name or NORAD number to pin it.

Real asteroid orbits

The brightest several thousand numbered asteroids from JPL, placed where they actually are. The true main belt appears between Mars and Jupiter, with the Jupiter Trojans bunched ahead of and behind the planet. Search Ceres, Vesta or Pallas to fly to one.

Double & variable stars

Click Albireo or Mizar and see the separation and position angle to split the pair, with each component's colour. Click Mira or Algol and see its type, range, period and a light curve. Search any of them by name.

Observing programs

Work the Messier, Caldwell and Herschel 400 checklists. Browse every object, center it, and tick off what you've seen; your progress is saved. Each deep-sky object shows which programs it belongs to.

Build your own observing lists

Make as many named lists as you like and add to them from anywhere: an object's info panel, the right-click menu, or straight from a catalog. Pick one as your active list and every target on it is circled and labeled in the live sky, so you can see at a glance what's up and what's still to come. Sort by brightness or rise time, track what you've already caught, and share the list or export it as CSV.

AR camera sky

Turn on your phone camera and the star chart overlays whatever the lens is pointed at. It labels what you're looking at, and it works in daylight too.

Moon calendar & atlas

Daily phases, exact full-moon times, supermoon flags. The atlas side lets you fly to Tycho, the maria or any Apollo landing site on the 3D Moon.

Deep sky & 2.5M stars

Over 32,000 deep-sky objects, more than a paid Plus-tier atlas: the full NGC/IC plus Sharpless, Arp, Abell, globular and open clusters, planetary nebulae and PGC galaxies, marked with the classic chart symbol and color-coded by type, against a sky of 2.5 million stars. Click any object to identify it, or search by catalog designation or common name.

Exoplanet systems

TRAPPIST-1, Kepler-90 and other real systems, with planets on their measured orbits. Habitable zones are shaded so you can see which worlds sit inside.

Live space weather & aurora

What the Sun is doing right now, from NOAA: the Kp index and the three space-weather scales (radio blackout, radiation and geomagnetic storm), the latest solar flare, the real-time solar wind, official storm watches, and your aurora chance for the next hour. The 3D Earth's auroral oval is driven by the live nowcast, sitting over the real offset magnetic pole.

About 9,000 live Celestrak satellites rendered as a shell orbiting Earth in real time
The full live satellite catalog, about 9,000 objects, wrapping Earth in real time.
Thousands of real numbered asteroids drawing the true main belt between Mars and Jupiter
The brightest numbered asteroids at their real positions, drawing the true main belt.
Jupiter with the Great Red Spot marked at its true position by Planet Watch
Planet Watch marks the Great Red Spot at its true position, computed from the rotation model.
Ephemeris generator graphing Mars brightness toward its 2027 opposition with CSV export
Mars brightening toward its 2027 opposition in the ephemeris generator. The data exports to CSV.
Moon atlas labeling maria, craters and Apollo landing sites on the 3D Moon
The Moon atlas: 277 named features and every landing site, clickable on the globe.
AR camera mode overlaying the star chart on the real night sky through the phone camera
AR camera mode, with the chart over the actual sky through your phone's lens.
The Crab supernova of 1054 blazing beside Tianguan in the simulated medieval sky
July 1054. The Crab supernova ignites where Chinese astronomers logged it.

A closer look

A few more of the places Space Time can take you, right out to the edge of the heliosphere.

An observing list highlighted in the night sky, with M13, Vega, M57, Deneb and Altair each circled and labeled
Your observing list, circled and labeled right on the sky, so you can see what's up tonight.
The double star Albireo identified with its separation, position angle and component colours
Click a double star like Albireo for the separation and position angle to split it.
The Caldwell observing program checklist with progress tracking
Work the Messier, Caldwell and Herschel 400 checklists, with progress saved.
The 2.5 million star Tycho-2 catalog filling the sky down to magnitude 13
Zoom in and 2.5 million stars keep appearing, the way a bigger scope would show them.
A close-up of Betelgeuse showing its orange-red seething surface and glare
Fly to a named star and it becomes a seething disc, coloured by its real spectral type.
The Cassiopeia A supernova remnant as a 3D model of expanding debris
Fly into the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant, a 3D shell of expanding debris.
A coronal mass ejection racing from the Sun toward Earth in the solar storm theater
Watch a coronal mass ejection race from the Sun to Earth and light the aurora.
Earth's magnetosphere and Van Allen belts visualised with field lines
Earth's magnetosphere and Van Allen belts, drawn with their field lines.
The heliosphere bubble with the Voyager spacecraft crossing into interstellar space
The heliosphere, with the spots where the Voyagers crossed into interstellar space.
A pulsar with its sweeping radio beams, flashing at its real rotation rate
Pulsars sweep their beams at their real measured rates, down to the millisecond.
A detailed 3D model of the James Webb Space Telescope at the L2 point
Detailed spacecraft models: the James Webb Space Telescope out at L2.
Riding a beam of light outward from the Sun as a expanding wavefront
Ride a beam of light outward and watch it reach each planet in real time.
The bright Milky Way core rising over a dark horizon for astrophotography planning
The Milky-Way-core planner: when the galactic centre is high, dark and Moon-free.
The Space Weather card showing live Kp, the R S G storm scales, a G3 geomagnetic storm watch, the latest flare and solar wind, beside the aurora on the 3D Earth
Live space weather: the Kp index, the R/S/G storm scales, flares, solar wind and NOAA's storm watches.
The live auroral oval over Earth's night side, offset over the geomagnetic pole, driven by the NOAA OVATION nowcast
The live auroral oval, sitting over the offset magnetic pole and driven by NOAA's nowcast.
A Hertzsprung-Russell diagram plotting stars by temperature and luminosity
The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, plotting real stars by colour and luminosity.
A simulation of Betelgeuse exploding as a supernova bright enough to see in daylight
What if Betelgeuse went supernova? Staged in your own sky at magnitude −11.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fragments striking Jupiter and leaving dark impact scars
Replay Shoemaker-Levy 9 hitting Jupiter in 1994, scar by scar.

Who uses it

Teachers run it in class. Stargazers use the planner before a night out, astrophotographers use the framing tools, and plenty of people just like flying around the planets. I built it because I wanted the orrery and the planetarium in one place; it grew from there. Free for classrooms, museums and home.

Explore Space Time

Pick a starting point:

3D solar system What's in the sky tonight Solar & lunar eclipse simulator Stand on the Moon or Mars Apollo missions in 3D Deep-sky explorer Exoplanet systems Telescope field-of-view simulator Space Time vs Stellarium Space Time vs SkySafari ISS & satellite passes Relive historic skies

Frequently asked questions

Is Space Time free?

Yes. Free, no account, nothing to install. It runs in your web browser.

Do I need to download anything?

No. It runs in any modern browser with WebGL, on desktop, tablet and phone.

What planets are visible tonight?

Set your location, then open the observing planner or the Sky view. You get rise, transit and set times for the planets, the Moon and deep-sky objects.

Can I watch a solar or lunar eclipse?

Yes, for any date and location. Solar eclipses show totality with the corona; lunar eclipses get the blood-red umbra.

Can I stand on the Moon or Mars?

You can. The Sky view is a first-person planetarium from Earth, the Moon or Mars, with the sky computed for that world and moment.

Is it scientifically accurate?

Positions come from the astronomy-engine library (JPL ephemerides) and land within about an arcsecond. Satellite tracking uses real SGP4, and small-body data comes from JPL.

Can I see the ISS and other satellites?

Yes. Passes of the ISS, Tiangong and Hubble are predicted from real TLE data with SGP4, and you can jump the clock straight to one. You can also turn on the full live Celestrak catalog, about 9,000 satellites, and watch them orbit Earth in real time, then search any one by name or NORAD number.

Does it work on mobile and in VR?

It does. The interface adapts to phones, there's an AR sky compass, and WebXR / VR headsets are supported.

Launch Space Time
Space Time is a free 3D universe explorer, built with Three.js & WebGL by Point Dynamics.