3D solar system asteroid map

Orbital distances are to scale. One astronomical unit (AU), the average Earth-Sun distance of about 150 million km, is a fixed length in the scene, so the spacing between orbits is astronomically accurate. Planet and asteroid sizes are not to scale - at true scale every body would be an invisible speck, so the spheres are enlarged for visibility while keeping a loose sense of relative size.

Because the planets are drawn far larger than life. Orbits and asteroid positions are to scale, but at true scale Earth would be an invisible speck, so the map inflates it roughly 700 times. That oversized sphere covers about 11 lunar distances of real space, which means the accurate path of an asteroid missing us by a few lunar distances can appear to cross the drawn planet. The pass is still a miss. For an honest view of a close pass, follow Earth and switch to the Moon close-up, which shrinks Earth back towards its true size and shows the Moon's orbit to scale. The true-scale planets toggle in the legend shows the same thing for the whole solar system.

The close approach list and orbital elements come from NASA JPL's Small-Body Database and are refreshed once every 24 hours. Orbital elements barely change day-to-day, so a daily refresh keeps positions accurate without hammering the JPL servers. The map shows near-Earth asteroids approaching within 0.05 AU of Earth over the next 60 days.

A potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) is one larger than roughly 140 metres whose orbit comes within 0.05 AU of Earth's orbit. The label reflects size and orbital proximity, not a predicted impact. None of the objects on this map are on a collision course with Earth. PHAs are marked in orange so you can spot them at a glance.

Each asteroid's diameter range is estimated from its brightness. Astronomers measure an object's absolute magnitude, then convert it to a size range by assuming how reflective the surface might be - a dark asteroid must be larger than a bright one to reflect the same light. Where a directly measured diameter exists, the panel shows that single figure instead.

Positions are computed from real Keplerian orbital elements published by JPL - semi-major axis, eccentricity, inclination, argument of perihelion, longitude of ascending node and mean anomaly. The map propagates each orbit as a two-body problem, which is accurate to well within a pixel at this scale over the 60-day window. JPL's own ephemerides add planetary perturbations, which matter for precise predictions but not for visualisation.