Show HN: Real-time Solar System with 526k asteroids and all tracked satellites

Show HN: Real-time Solar System with 526k asteroids and all tracked satellites space.bl2.net

378 points•wanick•1 day ago•104 comments•

#system #real #satellites #solar #tracked #asteroids #526k #solar system

104 comments

wanick1 day ago

Author here. It's a browser view of the Solar System at real scale, with its current state, plus the objects around Earth from the CelesTrak catalog.

Data: CelesTrak TLEs (SGP4), asteroids and comets from JPL SBDB, spacecraft positions from JPL Horizons. Updated daily.

Rendering is WebGL2, orbit propagation runs in web workers. The asteroid set (~30 MB) loads in the background.

The time slider runs forwards and backwards; satellites appear and disappear by launch date.

ddahlen1 day ago

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, if you are interested in orbit prop you may be interested in: https://github.com/dahlend/kete

I made an asteroid only version of yours earlier this year, where it does full orbit propagation in workers: https://dahlend.github.io/ketev/

wanickabout 17 hours ago

Yes, state vectors from the Horizons API for each spacecraft, refreshed daily. Thanks for the kete link, I'll take a look.

laylowerabout 15 hours ago

Importantly, how are we doing in terms of coverage? Are we seeing the sky enough and clearly enough to have a few years worth of warning before we get dinosaur-ed?

I figured the experts here would care to express an opinion.

gridmapabout 13 hours ago

Good question! From working within the field, there are new missions like NEO (Near Earth Object) Surveyor whose mission is to identify objects that could possibly be hazardous. There have also been missions previously done to study the required response to alter trajectories of objects such as the DART mission. We will also have a much greater picture of asteroids and comets in the inner Solar System in the future as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory continues its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) over the next decade. People are definitely thinking about these problems!

Links:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/neo-surveyor/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-OvnVdZP_8

https://rubinobservatory.org/news/11000-new-asteroids

dmbcheabout 10 hours ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_predicted_asteroid_imp...

schiffernabout 17 hours ago

  >satellites appear and disappear by launch date

This uses the modern TLE propagated backwards in time (vs using historical TLEs), correct?

wanickabout 13 hours ago

Yes, current TLEs propagated backwards. Past 90 days it's marked as an estimate.

sebmellenabout 10 hours ago

This asteroid is missing FWIW https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=20031...

joshspankitabout 12 hours ago

Can you make a version for VR, mostly for those “have you seen this yet” moments? Just the same data, same rendering, free movement by grabbing space (though earth pov would be a nice bonus). I’d pay $1-10 and even $1-$10/yr

FlowingRiverabout 19 hours ago

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 calculations on a 486DX with about 30 objects at just barely 30fps thanks to the FPU. That was pretty good for me. Without the FPU you would get maybe 2FPS. Now, you can just throw a half million around at 60fps+ in a web browser. Crazy!

karim791 day ago

Beautiful site. I love how tranquil the scene becomes when satellites and spacecraft is unchecked. Thanks for that SpaceX (and others).

schiffernabout 22 hours ago

It is often pointed out that SpaceX wouldn't exist without NASA, so let's not forget to thank NASA too.

dddwabout 19 hours ago

And NASA wouldn't exist without the USSR...? 8-/

climech1 day ago

Just spent a little time following Europa Clipper, it will fly by Earth very soon! If you zoom out from Earth, it's already pretty close. This will be its second gravity assist after Mars. Very cool site!

waylandsmithersabout 6 hours ago

I did some star gazing at an official "dark place" and was really amazed at just how much constant motion you can see from satellites flying around

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