Astro VR

Astro VR is an interactive astronomy simulation designed for VR and also playable on desktop. You can travel through the Solar System, visit distant stars and explore thousands of confirmed exoplanets, viewing entire planetary systems or standing on individual worlds.

Explore and observe

Advance or reverse time to watch planets, moons, asteroids, comets and spacecraft move along their paths. You can label, search for, select and inspect objects, read or listen to descriptions, take an automatically generated tour, or create your own. Information panels show available physical and orbital data, and let you compare objects with the Sun, Jupiter, Earth or the Moon.

In VR, thumbsticks or the thumbpad control movement and zoom. Viewing distance and scale can be adjusted independently, so you can examine an object closely or see a whole planetary system at once.

Astronomical data

The simulation brings together observations, mission data and published research. Solar System bodies and exoplanets use measured properties where available, including dimensions, masses, temperatures, rotation rates, axial orientations and orbital characteristics. Solar System positions draw primarily on NASA/JPL Horizons ephemerides, supplemented by JPL satellite data and mean orbital elements, NASA NAIF planetary kernels, Minor Planet Center and IAU records, NASA mission results and peer-reviewed research. Planetary orientations and orbital inclinations are shown in relation to their surrounding systems and background stars.

Stars use cataloged observations for properties such as position, distance, spectral classification, temperature, radius, mass, luminosity and magnitude. These measurements determine their position, color, brightness and dimensions; multiple-star systems and published stellar orbits are represented where enough information exists. Neutron stars and black holes are included, with black-hole masses and system properties drawn from current research. Their event horizons, accretion-disk motion, Doppler beaming and distortion of the background sky are simulated from those properties.

Exoplanet and host-star information comes primarily from the NASA Exoplanet Archive’s Planetary Systems and Composite Parameters datasets, supplemented by published discoveries and updated research. Available measurements determine characteristics such as orbital periods, distances from host stars, eccentricities, masses and radii. Exoplanet surfaces and atmospheres are visual interpretations informed by known properties, including size, temperature, stellar radiation and system age. The simulation also calculates approximate stellar habitable zones and identifies planets within them; these zones indicate potentially suitable stellar heating, not that a planet is habitable or supports life. Real imagery is used where suitable maps exist, while less thoroughly observed bodies have representative visualizations informed by known properties.

Database contents

The September 2026 database includes:

• 6,859 stellar systems
• 7,555 individual stars
• 6,361 confirmed exoplanets
• 18 black holes
• 8 neutron stars
• 8 Solar System planets
• 472 moons
• 92 asteroids and other minor bodies, including dwarf planets, near-Earth objects and trans-Neptunian objects
• 3 interstellar objects: ʻOumuamua, 2I/Borisov and 3I/ATLAS
• 9 spacecraft

The database is expanded and corrected as new observations and improved measurements become available.