The outer planets
Watch Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune move around the Sun. Compare their wide orbits and long years. The planet dots are enlarged so you can see them.
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About this model
The picture is a model. Its scale and timing depend on the selected view.
Read the note above before comparing sizes, distances or positions. The model explains motion; it is not a spacecraft flight plan.
Sun, September 27, 2026
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Distances use AU: Earth’s average distance from the Sun, 149,597,870 km. Angles mark positions around an orbit.
The outer planets, and how far apart they really are
From Jupiter out to Neptune the sun's distance multiplies by 5.8×, and this frame reaches 31.5 AU. The gaps between the giants are larger than the whole of the inner solar system — Jupiter alone sits further out than 3.4 times Mars's orbit.
| Planet | Distance from the sun | Year | Diameter | Moons drawn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jupiter | 5.203 AU | 11.87 y | 139,820 km | 17 |
| Saturn | 9.537 AU | 29.45 y | 116,460 km | 30 |
| Uranus | 19.189 AU | 84.06 y | 50,724 km | 23 |
| Neptune | 30.070 AU | 164.89 y | 49,244 km | 12 |
Every figure is worked out from the same orbital elements the picture is drawn with — the year from Kepler's third law, the distance from the semi-major axis — so the table and the drawing cannot disagree. This frame holds 8 of the nine bodies the simulator draws.
Each one on its own
The planet itself — turning on its axis, with its moons, its mass and gravity worked out from its own GM rather than copied in, and what has been learned about it lately.
Or climb the whole ladder on the solar system simulator, which is the page about how much the scale changes between these two views.
Make a link to a particular view
The date, the zoom, the span, the speed, the layers and any flight path are all in the address bar, so copying the URL shares exactly what is on screen. Set it up above, then take the link — it is the quickest way to hand a class one specific thing to look at.
The other simulator
This one is about the whole system. If the question is where the sun and the moon are from where you are standing — what time the sun comes up, why tonight's moon is the shape it is — that is the Sun, Earth & Moon movement simulator, which has a page for every city and a slider over a day, a week or a month. Between the two is the three bodies moving together — Earth going round the sun, the moon going round the Earth, on one screen and openly not to scale, keeping only the real ratio between the two periods.
And for why any of it stays up: the orbital velocity simulator takes one planet and lets you set its distance and its sideways speed by hand, so you can watch the balance that holds every orbit here — and break it, into an ellipse, an escape, or a fall into the sun.
Also: the classroom guide · sunrise & sunset by city · moon phase & moonrise · lunar eclipses · how the positions are worked out