Free Interactive 3D Solar System Simulator for Classrooms
Wanderstar is a free teaching tool for astronomy and Earth science. No login, no install — it runs in any modern browser and makes orbital motion, scale and the diversity of worlds easy to demonstrate.
Launch the classroom simulator →
Why teachers use Wanderstar
- No login or signup — open the link and project it.
- Runs in the browser on laptops, tablets and interactive whiteboards.
- Shows real orbital motion, not flat circles, so students build correct intuition.
- Covers planets, moons, asteroids, comets, scale and the night sky in one place.
- Works for elementary, middle and high school — go as deep as you like.
Classroom activity ideas
- Compare inner and outer planet orbits. Speed up time and ask which planets finish a lap first.
- Observe orbital speed. Discuss why outer planets move more slowly (Kepler’s third law).
- Explore the asteroid belt. Find where it sits and discuss why no planet formed there.
- Compare real vs. visible scale. Switch modes and discuss why textbook diagrams are not to scale.
- Identify major moons of Jupiter and Saturn and watch them orbit.
- Discuss eccentricity. Select Mars or a comet and find its closest and farthest points.
Tips and honesty
Project the simulator and use the orbit explainer and scale page as discussion prompts. Wanderstar uses a simplified educational model (see Data Sources): it is built for understanding, not for predicting exact spacecraft positions.