There are a lot of objects in our solar system! Generally speaking these fall under the following categories:
- Major Objects - Includes the Sun, Planets, and moons.
- Asteroids
- Comets
- Spacecraft and Debris
We try to plot the locations of these as accurately as we can, but it must be noted that there are innacuracies in these plots, and as a result you shouldn’t trust them for anything real!
Let’s explain each of these and how they are shown on this site:
Major Objects
Planets tend to stay in the same orbit over time, although there are significant variances due to the pull of other planets in the Solar System. If I ignored the other objects, for instance, Earth would look very odd as it wobbles several thousand miles because of the Moon. In order to keep the planets at about the right location I do a lookup of their parameters on a regular basis, it’s important to make sure these are correct! The Sun is the anchorpoint of the entire System, although in reality the gravitational center of the Solar System is a point that usually lies outside of the Sun called the Solar System Barycenter, the true anchor of the system.
Each of the moons of the major planets are stored with enough precision to get an idea of where they are, but they have very complex gravitational dances and it can sometimes be very tricky to show their location accurately without taking up a huge amount of space. Still, I’m happy with how they turned out!
Asteroids
Asteroids are found primarily between Mars and Jupiter, but they can be found throughout the Solar System. A secondary major population exists near the orbit of Jupiter, known as Trojan Asteroids, and other smaller populations can be found in other locations, including close to Earth! All of the spectral determinations on this site are according to NASA catalogs.
Spectral Classifications
There are a number of types of asteroids, which can be filtered. We only know the type of asteroid for a few objects. It’s relatively easy to spot the location, any telescope can do that, but to know the type we need to take the light that comes from it and split it into pieces to observe its spectrum. It’s even harder that some of the key spectrum that are needed are absorbed by water, requiring high altitude telescopes to accurately determine their spectra! If you have ever seen a rainbow you have seen an example of this, the light from the Sun is spread across all colors, each individual part of which is weaker than the full signal. As a result, only close or large asteroids can have their spectrum measured today. The major categories of asteroids include:
- Stony (S Type)
- Carbonaceous (C type)
- Metallic (M or X type)
In addition there are a few other minor categories which are largely variants of the 3 most common. These include:
- Basaltic (V) - Similar to Vesta, many of them are believed to be remnants from this large asteroid
- D type - The D is for Dark, these are very heavy carbon and other organic asteroids. Jupiter Trojans are commonly D-type. Related to C type, but more pristine.
- T Type - T is for Transition, these are somewhere between C and D types.
- K Type - Named for the Karin asteroid, these are related to S type.
- L Type - We still are learning about what these types of asteroids are like, but they are believed to be some of the earliest solid condensates from the Solar nebula.
- U Type - Unusual, basically a category for asteroids that have a spectrum but doesn’t neatly fit into one of the other buckets.
These smaller categories are groupings of similar asteroids that we have seen, but are quite rare. They are distinct enough that grouping them is still worthwhile, however.
Let’s go over the 3 main types
Carbonaceous Asteroids
These are the most common type of asteroid, composing about 75% of the categorized asteroids. They are believed to be mostly unaltered material from the early history of the Solar System. They are composed largely of carbon, water, and other light materials. These are the types of asteroids that could primarily be used to make rocket fuel, water, or other much needed resources if we are to explore the Solar System more.
These asteroids tend to be found in the outer part of the Solar System.
Stony/ Siliceous (S) Asteroids
Stony, or sometimes Siliceous, asteroids, collectively called Type S, compose about 17% of known asteroids in our Solar System. These are similar to what most of us think of as rocks on Earth. They contain common materials found in rockets, most notably Silicon. They are the best source of silicates for making circuits and solar power. They are also a good source of oxygen. They have trace amounts of metals as well. These are the most common type of asteroid near Earth.
Metallic (M or X) Asteroids
Metalic asteroids make up around 5% of the known asteroids, and are found mostly in the Main Belt. The primary material in these asteroids is nickel-iron, similar to the core of the Earth. In fact, there is a popular theory that the metallic asteroids are the remnant of the core a larger object that was broken up at some point in the past. These asteroids tend to have valuable minerals such as Rare Earths, and as a result could be quite valuable.
Comets
Simply put, comets are objects from the Outer Solar System. They tend to have a lot of water ice in them, and when they get close to the Sun parts of them sublimate, leading to long very visible tails. Some of the comets end up in the inner part of the Solar System for an extended period of time, to the point that all that is left of them is a collection of effectively gravel without any ice, thus they no longer have the tails they are known for.
Spacecraft
These are objects that we humans have launched. This site tries to use known data for where spacecraft are in the Solar System if it is available, but in some instances it is not, largely because communication ceased with the spacecraft, but in some instances the information is not available to the public (Soviet-era spacecraft).
In addition to the known spacecraft, there are a number of debris objects associated with spacecraft. These include spent boosters, spin weights, covers off of instruments, and other things. Jonathan McDowell has a catalog of all such objects known as the Deep Catalog of the General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects. This catalog contains all of the known objects in deep space, and has enough information about their location that I can attempt to locate them. In addition to this I have used a number of other sources, including JPL Horizons, The Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility, and the Space Physics Data Facility’s Soviet Spacecraft Archive.
Again, don’t trust these spacecraft locations for anything critical, especially the debris objects! It’s meant to showcase all of the objects going through our Solar System, including some of the less well known ones.