The Solar System
In increasing distance from the Sun, the planets of the Solar System are:
Mercury
Category: planet
Orbital period: 87.969'1 days
Radius: 2'439.7 km (0.382'9 Earths)
Satellites: none
Venus
Category: planet
Orbital period: 224.700'69 days
Radius: 6'051.8 km (0.949'9 Earths)
Satellites: none
Earth (front face)
Category: planet
Orbital period: 365.256'363'004 days
Radius: 6'371.0 km
1 satellite: The Moon
Mars (left face)
Category: planet
Orbital period: 686.971 days
Radius: 3,396.2 km (0.533 Earths)
2 satellites: Phobos, Deimos
Ceres
Category: dwarf planet
Orbital period: 1'680.5 days
Radius: 487.3 km
Satellites: none
Jupiter (top face)
Category: planet
Orbital period: 4'331.572 days
Radius: 71'492.0 km (11.209 Earths)
63 satellites: Ganymede, Callisto, Io, Europa
Saturn (back face)
Category: planet
Orbital period: 10'759.22 days
Radius: 60'268.0 km (9.449'2 Earths)
About 200 observed satellites with at least 62 moons: Titan, Rhea, Iapetus
Uranus (right face)
Category: planet
Orbital period: 60'190.0 days
Radius: 25,559.0 km (4.007 Earths)
27 satellites: Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel
Neptune (bottom face)
Category: planet
Orbital period: 30'799.095 days
Radius: 24'764.0 km (3.883 Earths)
13 satellites: Triton
Pluto
Category: dwarf planet
Orbital period: 90'613.305 days
Radius: 1'153.0 km
3 satellites: Charon, Hydra, Nix
Haumea
Category: dwarf planet
Orbital period: 103'468.0 days
Radius: 718.0 km
2 satellites: Hi'iaka, Namaka
Makemake
Category: dwarf planet
Orbital period: 113'183.0 days
Radius: 750.0 km
Satellites: none
Eris
Category: dwarf planet
Orbital period: 203'600.0 days
Radius: 1'300.0 km
1 satellite: Dysnomia
Astro Cube
The Astro Cube displays 6 planets: Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and
Neptune together with 13 of their largest satellites. Comet Halley is able to orbit around all cube faces.
The Sun and the inner planets Mercury and Venus are hidden inside the physical core of the cube.
In any solved state, all 13 satellites are positioned around their respective
planets and the comet orbit is an unbroken loop. Up to 36 solved states do actually exist, because Comet
Halley can travel to any of the 6 cube faces. In addition, satellites Moon, Io, Titan, Ariel and Triton
can be positioned at different spots around their respective planets. Note that the labels of satellites
of a same planet share a same and unique color.
Discover astronomical facts, for instance the order of the planets in the solar
system by following the comet path. Try to recognize the planets from their images and learn more about
the largest 13 satellites in the solar system. The cube also visualizes the very elongated orbit of Halley
that enables the comet to travel long distances from Earth (actually from Venus) to Neptune.
Halley's Comet (front face)
Category: short-period comet
Orbital period: 75.3 Julian years
Last perihelion: 9 February 1986
Next perihelion: 28 July 2061
Dimensions: 15.3 x 7.2 x 7.2 km
Halley's Comet or Comet Halley is the best-known of the short-period comets,
and is visible from Earth every 75 to 76 years. Halley is the only short-period comet that is clearly
visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a
human lifetime. Other naked-eye comets may be brighter and more spectacular, but will appear only once
in thousands of years. Halley's returns to the inner Solar System have been observed by astronomers
since at least 240 BC, and recorded by Chinese, Babylonian, and medieval European chroniclers, but were
not recognized as reappearances of the same object. The comet's periodicity was first determined in 1705
by English astronomer Edmond Halley, after whom it is now named. Halley's Comet last appeared in the
inner Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061.
Halley's orbital period over the last three centuries has been between 75 and
76 years, though it has varied between 74 and 79 years since 240 BC. Its orbit around the Sun is highly
elliptical. The perihelion, the point in the comet's orbit when it is nearest the Sun, is just 0.587'21 AU
(between the orbits of Mercury and Venus), while its aphelion, or farthest distance from the Sun, is 35.33 AU
(roughly the distance of Pluto). Unusually for an object in the Solar System, Halley's orbit is retrograde;
it orbits the Sun in the opposite direction to the planets, or clockwise from above the Sun's north pole.
The orbit is inclined by 18° to the ecliptic, with much of it lying south of the ecliptic. Due to
Halley's highly eccentric orbit, it has one of the highest velocities, relative to the Earth, of any object
in the Solar System. The 1910 passage was at a relative velocity of 70.56 km/s.
The layout of the Astro Cube was created in 2010 by Stefan
Berinde.
Celestia, a real-time
3D space simulation was used to render the images of the comet, planets and moons.
Faces of the cube:
2048 x 2048
Enlarged view
Animated cube