Welcome to your guide to the Solar System

• Check the upcoming close approaches between Earth and NEO (Near Earth Object) Asteroids.
• Find information, position data and sky charts for Planets, Asteroids, Comets, Interplanetary Probes.
• Use our Observing Guide to plan observations of the Solar System objects visible tonight from your location.
• Create accurate and interactive maps of the sky visible from any location up to the year 2035 using our Online Planetarium.
• Discover our 3D Solar System Simulator

Quick links

• Popular Objects
• Current Solar System Configuration
• The Sun and The Moon Today
• The Planets Today
• Current Planets Apparent Size Comparison
• Brightest Comets Visible Today
• Brightest Asteroids Visible Today
• Active Meteor Showers Visible Today

Popular Objects This Week

Popular objects this week

Current Solar System Configuration

This interactive 3D model shows the today's configuration of the major bodies of the Solar System along their orbits. It is an experimental feature and it requires a WebGL enabled browser. For more advanced features, check out our 3D Solar System Simulator. Please provide us feedback!

The Sun and the Moon Today

Here is how the Sun and the Moon look like today.

		R.A.	Decl.	Apparent Diameter	MagnitudeMag		ConstellationConst	Map
	Sun	20h 13m 54s	-19° 52’ 44”	1,949.9”	-26.78		Capricornus
	Moon	17h 53m 19s	-22° 32’ 46”	1,856.6”	-7.05		Sagittarius

The Planets Today

Key information about the Planets today. Click each row to go to each planet's detail page. Click the blue 'full screen' icon () to view an accurate deep sky chart showing the planet's current position.

	Planet	R.A.	Decl.	Apparent Diameter	MagnitudeMag		ConstellationConst	Map
	Venus	22h 47m 26s	-09° 07’ 37”	14.5”	-4.05		Aquarius
	Jupiter	18h 48m 44s	-22° 54’ 27”	31.4”	-1.85		Sagittarius
	Mercury	20h 47m 12s	-20° 01’ 00”	5.0”	-1.14		Capricornus
	Saturn	19h 41m 54s	-21° 20’ 44”	14.6”	1.37		Sagittarius
	Mars	16h 43m 42s	-22° 08’ 44”	4.6”	1.44		Ophiucus
	Uranus	02h 01m 37s	+11° 51’ 39”	3.5”	5.78		Aries
	Neptune	23h 11m 54s	-06° 15’ 54”	2.2”	7.94		Aquarius

Current Planets Apparent Size Comparison

Images credits: NASA-APL - NASA.

Bright Comets Today

These are the brightest comets currently visible in the sky. The Observed Magnitude and Coma Diameter values are derived from the Comet Observers Database by averaging the values reported in recent observations (more recent than 4 days), when available. The Estimated Magnitude comes from the JPL Horizons ephemeris service and might be inaccurate given the highly dynamic and unpredictable behavior of comets. When available please refer to the Observed Magnitude value and consider the Estimated Magnitude as a directional indication.

Click on each line to go to the comet's detail page, or click the blue 'full screen' icon () to view an accurate deep sky chart showing the comet's current position in real time. Also check the full list of tracked comets (175)

	Comet	R.A.	Decl.	Magnitude (Observed)Mag Obs	Magnitude (Estimated)Mag Pred		Coma DiameterComa Diam	ConstellationConst	Map
	C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS)	02h 31m 13s	+57° 19’ 37”	9.8	11.96		3.4'	Perseus Per
	C/2018 N2 (ASASSN)	23h 32m 30s	+41° 13’ 26”	12.7	14.46		1.4'	Andromeda And
	C/2020 A2 (Iwamoto)	18h 05m 03s	+16° 41’ 36”	13.5	15.28		1.3'	Hercules Her
	C/2019 Y1 (ATLAS)	23h 41m 03s	-13° 20’ 43”	-	14.83		-	Aquarius Aqr
	260P/McNaught	03h 18m 29s	+41° 06’ 22”	15.6	17.44		0.7'	Perseus Per
	29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1	00h 36m 55s	+13° 15’ 45”	-	15.62		-	Pisces Psc
	C/2018 F4 (PANSTARRS)	00h 18m 42s	-74° 05’ 41”	-	15.91		-	Tucana Tuc
	C/2019 N1 (ATLAS)	18h 11m 31s	+60° 58’ 26”	-	16.26		-	Draco Dra
	C/2018 A6 (Gibbs)	22h 34m 17s	-52° 22’ 12”	-	16.27		-	Grus Gru
	289P/Blanpain	06h 53m 32s	+68° 32’ 36”	18.2	16.29		0.3'	Camelopardalis Cam
	C/2019 K1 (ATLAS)	20h 54m 25s	-74° 17’ 03”	-	16.42		-	Pavo Pav
	68P/Klemola	23h 05m 02s	-07° 26’ 50”	-	16.63		-	Aquarius Aqr
	C/2017 B3 (LINEAR)	23h 16m 19s	-20° 57’ 57”	-	16.73		-	Aquarius Aqr
	C/2019 Q4 (Borisov)	12h 34m 15s	-49° 49’ 36”	-	16.79		-	Centaurus Cen
	C/2019 K7 (Smith)	20h 26m 41s	-14° 05’ 22”	-	16.87		-	Capricornus Cap
	88P/Howell	13h 27m 01s	-04° 38’ 21”	-	16.98		-	Virgo Vir
	C/2019 L3 (ATLAS)	22h 30m 26s	+40° 23’ 26”	17.0	17.68		0.3'	Lacerta Lac
	C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS)	18h 00m 28s	+45° 38’ 21”	-	17.04		-	Hercules Her
	C/2017 M4 (ATLAS)	14h 28m 37s	-66° 58’ 26”	-	17.04		-	Circinus Cir
	C/2016 M1 (PANSTARRS)	05h 45m 43s	-29° 40’ 44”	-	17.05		-	Columba Col

We acknowledge with thanks the comet observations from the COBS Comet Observation Database contributed by observers worldwide and used in this table to report recent comet observations.

Bright Asteroids Today

These are the top 10 brightest asteroids visible tonight. Click on each line to go to the asteroids's detail page, or click the blue 'full screen' icon () to view an accurate deep sky chart showing the asteroids's current position in real time. Also check the full list of tracked asteroids and dwarf planets (76)

	Asteroid	R.A.	Decl.	MagnitudeMag		ConstellationConst	Map
	4 Vesta	02h 51m 07s	+10° 56’ 13”	7.78		Aries
	1 Ceres	19h 55m 57s	-25° 19’ 46”	8.90		Sagittarius
	5 Astraea	08h 06m 25s	+16° 35’ 03”	8.93		Cancer
	15 Eunomia	23h 06m 37s	+04° 17’ 43”	10.02		Pisces
	2 Pallas	18h 04m 14s	+04° 31’ 02”	10.30		Ophiucus
	192 Nausikaa	07h 10m 29s	+31° 30’ 57”	10.31		Gemini
	9 Metis	02h 05m 51s	+11° 50’ 54”	10.39		Aries
	3 Juno	13h 19m 50s	-05° 17’ 57”	10.46		Virgo
	29 Amphitrite	01h 17m 41s	+13° 27’ 51”	10.60		Pisces
	18 Melpomene	22h 31m 17s	-12° 14’ 00”	10.67		Aquarius

Active Meteor Showers Today

This is a list of the currently active meteor showers. The celestial coordinates refer to the meteor shower radiant position, i.e. the point in the sky where the meteors appear to come from. The ZHR value refers to the Zenithal Hourly Rate, i.e. the average number of meteors an individual observer could see in an hour, assuming perfectly dark sky conditions. This number is an estimate, the actual number an observer could see depends on the actual intensity of the shower (which can be highly variable) and on the actual sky conditions. Clicking on the blue square icon will bring you to a sky map showing the radiant position. The data used here is derived from Wikipedia.

	Name	Peak	Radiant R.A.	Radiant Decl.	ZHR	Rating	Parent Object	Map
	Dec. Leonis Minorids	20 Dec	10h 41m	+30°	5	medium
	Gamma Ursae Minorids	20 Jan	15h 11m	+67°	3	medium