Solar System Orbit Simulator

COLLISION DETECTED

Drag empty space to pan. Mouse wheel or pinch to zoom. Click Add Comet, then drag on the simulation: the drag direction and length set the comet's initial velocity.

Comet Settings

Mass (kg)

Radius (km)

Velocity scale

Comet color

A comet uses full Newtonian gravity and can perturb the Earth, Moon, and Sun. Default comet mass is deliberately exaggerated enough to make close interactions visible.

Physics

Comets also perturb planets Adaptive close-encounter physics Enable collisions and merging Pause when collision detected Show orbital trails Show velocity vectors Show body labels

Minimum integrator steps per frame

During a close pass, the simulator automatically reduces the physics timestep so the comet cannot jump across Earth's gravity field between frames.

View

Collision Events

No collisions detected.

Legend

Sun

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

Moon

Comets

Notes

Distances and velocities use SI units. Body radii are visually enlarged so the Earth and Moon remain visible at solar-system scale. All eight planets orbit the Sun using real masses, approximate orbital radii, and circular orbital speeds. The Earth and Moon begin in a physically consistent two-body barycentric orbit with a period of about 27.3 days. Every planet always exerts gravity on every comet, and adaptive Hill-sphere stepping resolves gravity assists and trajectory bending. The dashed ring around Earth, Moon, and Sun marks the true physical collision radius. Swept-path testing prevents fast bodies from tunneling through a planet between frames.