Real-time Solar System (space.bl2.net)
Creative
space visualisation
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Real-time Solar System (space.bl2.net)
Real-time Solar System with 526k asteroids and all tracked satellites
space.bl2.net#solar system simulator#satellite tracker#asteroid visualisation#orbit viewer
How HN took it
20 positive, 26 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 6 critical, out of 53 comments about the project. Thread score +0.29.
Idea: 6 for, 2 againstDesign: 2 for, 2 againstPerformance: 3 for, 0 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Smooth performance with 526k asteroids
From 3 comments
Brilliant project and very well done. That aside, it is just astounding that even a moderate laptop just plows through this as thought it is nothing. I remember doing orbital…
FlowingRiver on HNI love how smooth it is! Amazing work
rtmkrptn on HN526k objects and it still feels smooth. are you culling by distance or doing something smarter on the gpu side?
GnosiWorks on HN
Beautiful and informative view of satellites and asteroids
From 3 comments
Beautiful site. I love how tranquil the scene becomes when satellites and spacecraft is unchecked. Thanks for that SpaceX (and others).
karim79 on HNAlways wanted to see the asteroid belt's true density visualized; this really puts it into perspective. Impressive work keeping everything performant.
dunlin on HNI love this; also runs surprisingly smoothly (at least in browser; didn't check mobile). Also beautiful and hypnotic in motion. What's the next step that you want to take to…
blindflag on HN
Objections
Satellites and objects are not drawn to scale
From 3 comments
> It's a browser view of the Solar System at real scale Is it really? I don't think you could see the satellites, if they weren't drawn at 1000x scale. I am wrong? At real scale,…
____tom____ on HNI think it's pretty obvious the satellites aren't drawn to scale, given they don't change in size when zooming in/out.
jsphweid on HNGood point, the page now says it: distances are to scale, the dots are not.
wanick on HN
Missing some asteroids
From 2 comments
This asteroid is missing FWIW https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=20031689
sebmellen on HNOh man, it seems like my asteroid (Minor Planet 31689 - Sebmellen [0]) is missing. [0]: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6711174 [1]:…
sebmellen on HN
Hard to select or center on a planet
From 1 comment
Super! Not easy to select or center on a planet though.
java-man on HN
Requests
Faster zoom and mobile zoom support
From 2 comments
A way to zoom that is faster than mouse wheel would be nice. Takes forever to zoom out a long way!
boxed on HNBeing able to zoom on mobile at all would be great. And a way to close all of the overlay panels!
Oarch on HN
Filter asteroids by approach to a target body
From 1 comment
I would love to filter for asteroids that have orbits that bring them into within a certain range of a target body like earth.
fouc on HN
Keyboard pause and a Now button
From 1 comment
Fun: 116 d/s with Earth/etc selected, gives a Sun "orbiting" the Earth/etc effect. Bug: ISO DEB at 17 min/s looked normal, but at 2.8 h/s it became a solid-ish (lots of crossing…
mncharity on HN
Source code on GitHub
From 1 comment
No github repo? :(
jurakovic on HN
Questions
How are spacecraft positions sourced from JPL
From 1 comment
How are you sourcing the spacecraft positions from JPL? Are you just grabbing a huge list of state vectors? My old day job was to compute asteroid positions for NASA telescopes,…
ddahlen on HN
How are satellites shown when launched dates are in the future or past
From 1 comment
``` >satellites appear and disappear by launch date ``` This uses the modern TLE propagated backwards in time (vs using historical TLEs), correct?
schiffern on HN
What share of tracked satellites is Starlink
From 2 comments
Almost 1 in 3 tracked spacecraft is Starlink, is that accurate?
1shooner on HNEven more than that. Of the 35k tracked "Satellites and spacecraft", more than 12k are debris bringing Starlink to 1 in 2. If you look only at Active known satellites, around 2…
Sayrus on HN
Alternatives named
Celestia
From 2 comments
Celestia did all of this and more. 10+ years ago. https://celestiaproject.space/
tintor on HN> and the download page looks like this: https://sourceforge.net/projects/celestia/ The page that states "Please do not download Celestia from this repository. This repository…
defrost on HN
Stellarium
From 1 comment
> and the download page looks like this: https://sourceforge.net/projects/celestia/ The page that states "Please do not download Celestia from this repository. This repository…
defrost on HN