| Body | Semi-major axis (AU) | Eccentricity | Inclination (deg) | Sidereal period (days) | Mean radius (km) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 0.387098 | 0.205637 | 7.006 | 87.969 | 2,439.7 |
| Venus | 0.723321 | 0.006764 | 3.398 | 224.701 | 6,051.8 |
| Earth | 1.000000 | 0.016732 | -0.001 | 365.256 | 6,371 |
| Mars | 1.523712 | 0.093365 | 1.852 | 686.98 | 3,389.5 |
| Jupiter | 5.202480 | 0.048536 | 1.299 | 4,332.589 | 69,911 |
| Saturn | 9.541499 | 0.055508 | 2.494 | 10,759.22 | 58,232 |
| Uranus | 19.187979 | 0.046857 | 0.773 | 30,685.4 | 25,362 |
| Neptune | 30.069528 | 0.008954 | 1.770 | 60,189 | 24,622 |
| Pluto | 39.486860 | 0.248852 | 17.141 | 90,560 | 1,188.3 |
Surface maps: Solar System Scope (CC BY 4.0) from NASA imagery · Pluto: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Real positions of the planets, asteroids, comets and spacecraft, from JPL orbital data and ELP2000 lunar theory.
Confirmed strikes and airbursts, plus objects still on the risk lists. Jumping to a date sets the clock to the recorded UTC moment.
Podkamennaya Tunguska, Siberia — Airburst at 5-10 km altitude flattened about 2,150 km² of forest. Largest impact event in recorded history; no crater, no recovered meteorites.Source: Chyba et al. 1993; Boslough & Crawford 2008
Sikhote-Alin, Russia — Iron meteoroid broke up at low altitude; roughly 23 tonnes of iron recovered from more than 100 craters.Source: Krinov 1966
Nubian Desert, Sudan — First asteroid ever detected in space before impact — found 19 hours ahead of entry. Around 10.5 kg of fragments were recovered.Source: Jenniskens et al., Nature 2009; CNEOS
Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia — Undetected 19 m asteroid burst at 23 km altitude. Shock wave injured about 1,500 people and damaged 7,200 buildings. Arrived from the sunward direction, which is why nothing saw it coming.Source: Popova et al., Science 2013; CNEOS
Botswana (Central Kalahari) — Third asteroid discovered before impact, 8 hours ahead. Meteorites were later recovered in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.Source: CNEOS; Jenniskens et al. 2021
Caribbean Sea, south of Puerto Rico — Detected by ATLAS about 12 hours before entry and confirmed by weather satellites as it burst over the sea.Source: CNEOS; ATLAS
Norwegian Sea, near Jan Mayen — Discovered two hours before impact — the shortest warning of any predicted impact so far.Source: CNEOS; MPC
West of Berlin, Germany — Found 95 minutes before entry; the predicted strewn field near Ribbeck yielded rare aubrite meteorites.Source: CNEOS; MPC
Off Luzon, Philippines — Ninth asteroid detected before impact; the fireball over Luzon was widely filmed.Source: CNEOS; MPC
Moon (Earth impact ruled out) — Earth impact was excluded in Feb 2025. A few-percent probability remains of a strike on the Moon in Dec 2032; JWST observations continue to refine the orbit.Source: CNEOS Sentry; ESA NEOCC; JWST 2025 campaign
Real launch, flyby and arrival dates. Between those anchors the path is a two-body arc fitted to the actual dates, not the flown trajectory. Earth-orbit and lunar missions live in the Earth & Moon window.
Modelled thought experiments — real physics where physics applies, clearly labelled where it stops.
Accuracy: planetary elements (Standish, JPL) are rated to a few arcminutes over 3000 BCE–3000 CE; beyond that the secular terms are extrapolated and errors grow to degrees near ±10,000 years. Lunar positions use a truncated ELP2000-82B series (~10″ near the present). Asteroids and comets are two-body propagations of JPL osculating elements, so they drift over centuries. Spacecraft paths interpolate real launch/flyby/arrival dates with conic arcs. Planet discs are not to scale; orbital geometry and angular positions are.