A playground experiment

Orbital.

Earth, and what surrounds it.

Preparing the orbital view…

Earth and Moon

Moon distance compressed · sizes to scale

Drag to turn · Scroll or pinch to zoom
Keyboard: arrow keys and + / −

Speed

Simulating

+00:00:00

01 / Find your perspective

02 / What’s in view

Satellites100 example objects Space debris900 illustrative fragments Orbital pathsThe shape of a circuit AtmosphereAn exaggerated blue edge

03 / Take a closer look

The starting point

Earth

Turn the Earth and Moon together, or zoom in on either. The thin blue edge is an exaggerated atmosphere.

Mean diameter: 12,742 km
Rotation relative to stars: 23 h 56 min
Natural satellites: 1

About this model & sources

Satellite positions and debris are simulated. The objects are examples, and their counts describe this scene.

Earth and Moon sizes share one scale. The Moon is brought closer in the shared view. True distance restores its mean separation of 384,400 km.

Satellite distances stay to scale. Markers and the atmosphere are enlarged for visibility. Orbits are circular approximations. Lighting, orientation and the star field are illustrative.

Earth imagery: NASA Blue Marble. Moon imagery: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State University.

Reference values: NASA Moon fact sheet. Background: ESA’s guide to orbits.

Apollo 11 marks Eagle’s landing site at Tranquility Base. Its position uses NASA’s landing-site coordinates. The dot is enlarged for visibility.