Helios · Orbital Survey · Dataset J2000
The solar system, drawn honestly.
Every diagram of the solar system lies to you. It has to — the truth doesn't fit on a page. This one lies too, but it confesses: flip the switch below and watch the lie evaporate.
CIRCULAR, COPLANAR ORBITS · J2000 MEAN LONGITUDES · ~96% HONEST
The scroll journey
Outward from the fire.
Eight planets, one demoted sweetheart, and a running tally of how far you've come. Distances accumulate in the corner as you scroll. Pack light.
01 · 0.39 AU FROM THE SUN
Mercury
The scorched courier
Sun-blasted and airless, Mercury sprints. It clears a full orbit in 88 days, yet spins so slowly that its day–night cycle outlasts its year. Noon hits 427 °C; the same rock at midnight drops to −173 °C. No atmosphere, no mercy.
- Distance
- 0.39 AU57.9M km
- Year
- 88.0 days
- Day
- 58.6 d spinsolar day 176 d
- Mean temp
- 167 °C−173 to 427 °C
Signature stat — the year shorter than the day
Mercury's 3:2 spin–orbit resonance means one full day–night cycle spans two Mercury years. Book the sunrise tour; you have time.
02 · 0.72 AU FROM THE SUN
Venus
The beautiful catastrophe
The brightest thing in our sky after the Sun and Moon, and the least hospitable. A runaway greenhouse traps a surface at 464 °C under 92 atmospheres — hot enough to melt lead, heavy enough to crush a submarine. And it does all this while rotating backwards, slower than it orbits.
- Distance
- 0.72 AU108.2M km
- Year
- 224.7 days
- Day
- 243 d spinretrograde · solar day 117 d
- Surface temp
- 464 °Chotter than Mercury
Signature stat — a race the day loses
One rotation — the day
0 d
One orbit — the year
0 d
YEAR COMPLETE
Both clocks count Earth days, started together. The year finishes at 225; the day is still going at 243. On Venus you age a year before the Sun crosses the sky once.
03 · 1.00 AU FROM THE SUN
Earth
The control group
Every number in this survey is measured against this one — its distance is the unit, its day is the clock, its diameter is the yardstick. Liquid water at the surface, an oxygen atmosphere maintained by life, and as far as anyone can confirm, the only place where the universe looks back.
- Distance
- 1.00 AUby definition
- Year
- 365.25 days
- Day
- 23.9 h
- Mean temp
- 15 °Csuspiciously pleasant
Signature stat — one astronomical unit, the yardstick
0 km
The average Sun–Earth distance, and the ruler for this entire survey. Sunlight makes the trip in 8 min 20 s; our fastest spacecraft take months.
04 · 1.52 AU FROM THE SUN
Mars
The rusted archive
Half Earth's diameter and fully oxidized — iron rust gives Mars its color and its brand. It keeps a familiar 24.6-hour day and polite seasons, then breaks scale entirely: Olympus Mons stands 21.9 km tall, and Valles Marineris would stretch from Los Angeles to New York.
- Distance
- 1.52 AU227.9M km
- Year
- 687 days1.88 Earth years
- Day
- 24.6 h
- Mean temp
- −63 °C
Signature stat — Olympus Mons vs. Everest
Heights to scale; widths are not — Olympus Mons is 600 km across and would bury the state of Arizona. Low gravity and no plate tectonics let a volcano just keep growing.
05 · 5.20 AU FROM THE SUN
Jupiter
The gravity engine
More massive than every other planet combined — twice over. Jupiter's gravity herds asteroids, slings comets, and shelters the inner system. The Great Red Spot is a storm wider than Earth that has raged for at least 190 years, and its day is the shortest of any planet: under ten hours.
- Distance
- 5.20 AU778.5M km
- Year
- 11.86 years
- Day
- 9.9 h
- Temp
- −110 °Cat the 1-bar level
Signature stat — 1,321 Earths fit inside
0 Earths — each dot is one — fit inside Jupiter by volume.
06 · 9.54 AU FROM THE SUN
Saturn
The showpiece
The rings span 282,000 km and are, in places, about ten meters thick — proportionally thinner than a sheet of paper the size of a city. The planet beneath them is mostly hydrogen, whipped by 1,800 km/h winds, and famously less dense than water.
- Distance
- 9.54 AU1.43B km
- Year
- 29.5 years
- Day
- 10.7 h
- Temp
- −140 °C
Signature stat — the planet that floats
Mean density. Saturn is the only planet lighter than water: given an impossibly large bathtub, it floats. (It would also leave a ring.)
07 · 19.19 AU FROM THE SUN
Uranus
The sideways world
Something hit Uranus, hard, a long time ago. The planet orbits tipped 97.8° onto its side, rolling around the Sun like a barrel — even its faint rings run nearly vertical. Its cold methane haze is the blankest face in the solar system: −195 °C, feature-free, serene.
- Distance
- 19.19 AU2.87B km
- Year
- 84.0 years
- Day
- 17.2 hretrograde
- Temp
- −195 °C
Signature stat — a 98° problem
Spin axis vs. orbit. Every planet leans a little; Uranus lies down. Each pole gets 42 years of daylight, then 42 years of night.
08 · 30.07 AU FROM THE SUN
Neptune
The mathematician's planet
Nobody stumbled on Neptune — it was calculated. Astronomers noticed Uranus drifting off schedule, did the math, and in 1846 pointed a telescope where the equations said to look. It was there, within a degree. Thirty AU out, its winds still reach 2,100 km/h, powered by almost no sunlight at all.
- Distance
- 30.07 AU4.50B km
- Year
- 164.8 years
- Day
- 16.1 h
- Temp
- −200 °C
Signature stat — supersonic weather
0 km/h peak winds
Faster than the speed of sound on Earth, on a planet that receives 0.1% of our sunlight. Nobody fully knows why. We love that for it.
EPILOGUE · ~39.5 AU FROM THE SUN
Pluto
We still love you
Reclassified in 2006, beloved regardless. Pluto is smaller than our Moon, wears a heart-shaped nitrogen glacier the size of Texas, and keeps five moons of its own — the largest, Charon, so big the two orbit each other. Discovered in 1930, it has never completed a lap on our watch. Take your time, little one. We're not going anywhere.
- Distance
- 39.5 AU avgorbit: 29.7–49.3 AU
- Year
- 248 years
- Day
- 6.4 dretrograde
- Temp
- −232 °C
Signature stat — orbit progress since discovery
Discovered February 1930; orbital period 248 years. Pluto's first full lap since we learned its name completes in 2178. Mark your calendars loosely.