An interactive 3D model of the solar system fills the screen: the Sun and planets moving on their real orbits at the real date. Use the buttons and panels to explore; every world can be opened as a text card with its facts.
The solar system with honest physics: real orbits, real spins, real dates.
Supported by 
· free for children's education
· free for children's education💡 RIDING A PHOTON · THE TRUE SPEED OF LIGHT
0s
0 km
Nothing in the universe travels faster. Feel how long it STILL takes.
A new version of SolarBench is ready.
Welcome to the solar system. Everything here moves the way the real one does, right now, today: time runs at REAL TIME until you wind it up. Even the stars behind everything are the real sky, and CONSTELLATIONS draws you the map.
Tip: the ⭐ TONIGHT button shows what is really in the sky over your house this evening.
The planetarium could not start
SolarBench needs WebGL (3D graphics in the browser), and this device or browser would not switch it on. Try Chrome or Edge with hardware acceleration enabled, or a slightly newer device.
Free for children's education · supported by BroadbandSwitch.uk
Can we count your visit? One anonymous counter, so we know SolarBench is being enjoyed. No ads, ever.
How we handle data
HOW HONEST IS IT?
Orbits, planet positions, spin rates, axial tilts, Earth's day-night line, the Moon's phase and the probe distances are all real, computed for the actual date shown. Planet sizes and distances are gently compressed so you can see everything at once. TRUE SCALE makes distances real and boosts every body's size by the same 23×, so every ratio between worlds is exact (at fully honest size, even Jupiter is smaller than a pixel). The Sun's flares are dramatised (real ones do not happen every minute), and only a sprinkle of the 16,000 working satellites is drawn, higher than they really fly.
DATA & THANKS
Orbital elements from NASA/JPL[2] · planet facts from the NASA fact sheets[1] · stars from the Hipparcos catalogue[4] · live space weather from NOAA[8] · satellite counts from Jonathan McDowell[7] · coastlines from Natural Earth · 3D by three.js · type by Chakra Petch.
CARRY YOUR PROGRESS
Your badges, streak and call-sign live only on this device. Copy a transfer code to carry them to another one (the school iPad to the home PC, say).
CLASSROOM
Bigger text and labels, small hints hidden, for a screen at the front of the room.
TESTED ON
| Chrome / Edge | Windows, Mac, ChromeOS, Android |
| Safari | Mac, iPhone, iPad (iOS 16+) |
| Firefox | Windows, Mac, Android |
| Samsung Internet | Android phones and tablets |
Any modern browser with WebGL. Weaker devices step the graphics down automatically; the stress test still measures them fairly.
READING & DISPLAY
Text size
Your device's own reduced-motion and high-contrast settings are respected automatically.
GRAPHICS QUALITY
Explore mode adapts to your device. Pick a level if you know better.
The stress test ignores this and always draws the full scene at 1920×1080, so every score means the same work.
CONTROLS
🖱 Drag to look · scroll or pinch to zoom · click any world for its card · SPACE pauses time.
⌨️ Keyboard: TAB moves between worlds and ENTER opens one · arrow keys orbit · + and - zoom · ESC closes anything.
🚀 Flight: W thrust · SHIFT boost · mouse steers · click or SPACE fires · Q E roll · ESC to leave.
📱 Touch: one finger orbits, two fingers pinch · in flight the left half is a joystick, FIRE and BOOST sit on the right.
🎮 Controller: plug in an Xbox or PlayStation pad · left stick orbits or steers · A fires · B boosts · Start leaves flight.
⏪ REWIND runs time backwards · RESET puts everything back.
⌨️ Keyboard: TAB moves between worlds and ENTER opens one · arrow keys orbit · + and - zoom · ESC closes anything.
🚀 Flight: W thrust · SHIFT boost · mouse steers · click or SPACE fires · Q E roll · ESC to leave.
📱 Touch: one finger orbits, two fingers pinch · in flight the left half is a joystick, FIRE and BOOST sit on the right.
🎮 Controller: plug in an Xbox or PlayStation pad · left stick orbits or steers · A fires · B boosts · Start leaves flight.
⏪ REWIND runs time backwards · RESET puts everything back.
WHY IS THIS FREE?
SolarBench is sponsored for children's education by
,
the UK broadband comparison site. No ads, no selling, no accounts.
,
the UK broadband comparison site. No ads, no selling, no accounts.MADE BY
Dr Alex Martin-Smith
· dpo@upleashed.com
Your streaks, badges and settings live only on this device. No cookies, no tracking, no accounts.
Drag to look around · scroll to zoom · click a planet to meet it
Distances gently compressed so you can see everything. Flip TRUE SCALE for the humbling truth.
🔥 STRESS TEST BRIEFING
This pushes your device as hard as it will go for about 45 seconds, building
the cosmos bigger and bigger while time winds up to years per second.
⚠️ Perfectly normal during the test: fans spinning up, stutters, flicker, and on some laptops the screen
may briefly go white if the graphics driver taps out. That is safe, and the test scores it honestly as your machine's limit.
On a powerful machine the top levels CRAWL: that slow-motion grind is the measurement itself, so keep the tab open and let it finish.
(ESC stops early and scores what you held.)
🏁 At the end you get your machine's grade, from CARDBOARD TELESCOPE to JAMES WEBB, and you can put it
on the world rankings.
Sensitive to flashing? Your device's reduced-motion setting keeps the spectacle calmer.
🚀 MISSION CONTROL: EARTH → MARS
Space agencies do not launch to Mars whenever they fancy. Earth catches Mars up
only once every 26 months, and rockets aim not at Mars but at where Mars will be months later.
Launch in the window and you coast right into it; launch on the wrong day and you arrive at empty space.[10]
EARTH → MARS ON THE DATE SHOWN
MARS'S HEAD START
NEXT LAUNCH WINDOW
CLOSEST APPROACH (OPPOSITION)
JOURNEY TIME IN THE WINDOW
Computed live from the same orbits as the model: the window moves with the date on your time bar,
so wind back to 1969 and find the window Mariner missed.
🚀 MISSION TO MARS · LIVE
T+0 DAYS
0 km/s ·
📚 REFERENCES
Every figure in SolarBench traces back to a primary source. The little [n] marks
around the app point into this list (APA 7th edition). Spot something out of date?
Tell us: dpo@upleashed.com
STRESS TEST
building the cosmos…
· FPS
spinning up…
YOUR MACHINE HELD
0
COSMIC OBJECTS AT ONCE
·
Whatever your machine earned stays in the sky while you explore.
Supported by BroadbandSwitch.uk · free for children's education
SPEED TEST
WARMING UP
· MBPS
connecting…
YOUR DOWNLOAD SPEED
0 Mbps
·
Speed test sponsored by BroadbandSwitch.uk · compare broadband deals there
⭐ TONIGHT
THE SKY FROM YOUR GARDEN [2]
QUESTION OF THE DAY
COMING UP IN REAL SPACE [9]
TIME MACHINE
See the sky on any date, your birthday included:
MY STUFF
Call-sign
Class code
The call-sign shows on rankings. A class code puts you on your class board too. No real names, no accounts, nothing personal stored.
🏅 MISSIONS
1 / 13
📸 YOUR POSTCARD
or right-click / long-press the picture to save it
SCORE 0
W thrust · SHIFT boost · mouse steers · click or SPACE fires · Q E roll · ESC then EXIT to leave