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Just for fun and self education, I've built this over a weekend to teach myself why orbits exist, not just show planets going around. Something that was never clearly explain to me in school.
It opens with a guided tour that builds the idea up step by step: two bodies and the equal/opposite force, inertia (the Sun is removed and Earth just drifts straight), then "an orbit is falling and continuously missing," cosmic velocities with a little rocket, Voyager 1 & 2's real gravity assists (the clock runs the actual 1977–1989 dates so the planets orbit into their grand-tour alignment and the slingshots line up), and it ends on Einstein — gravity as curved spacetime, the classic rubber-sheet well.
What's real: every body uses its real radius/mass and J2000 orbital elements; positions come from solving Kepler's equation each frame. You can toggle to an N-body mode (symplectic leapfrog) that shows live energy drift (~1e-6%) so you can see the integrator is honest. The only thing faked is scale — at true scale you can't see anything — so there's a toggle between true scale and a log-remapped "visual" scale, with physics always running in real AU.
Tech: TypeScript + Three.js + Vite, fully client-side, no backend, works offline (surface textures are generated procedurally from value-noise; only Earth uses a real image). Source: https://github.com/qunabu/GravityHappy to answer questions — and feedback on the physics or the explanations is very welcome. This project might be totally inaccurate in terms of real physics, this is how i do understand this on my own - i'm happy to confront this with reality
Show HN: Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein
An educational tool for understanding orbital mechanics from Newtonian physics to Einsteinian relativity, emphasizing conceptual clarity over mere visualization.
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AI Executive Synthesis
An educational tool for understanding orbital mechanics from Newtonian physics to Einsteinian relativity, emphasizing conceptual clarity over mere visualization.
This project, while presented as a personal educational endeavor, highlights the enduring demand for interactive learning tools in STEM. Its focus on explaining fundamental physics concepts, rather than just displaying simulations, addresses a common educational gap. The client-side, offline functionality built with modern web technologies (TypeScript, Three.js) demonstrates the power of accessible, high-performance browser applications for complex visualizations. While not a direct B2B SaaS, its methodology could inform educational SaaS platforms or interactive documentation for scientific software. The explicit mention of 'self-education' and 'never clearly explained in school' points to a market need for supplementary, engaging learning experiences that traditional curricula often fail to provide.
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What is Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein?
Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein is analyzed by our AI as: An educational tool for understanding orbital mechanics from Newtonian physics to Einsteinian relativity, emphasizing conceptual clarity over mere visualization.. It focuses on This project, while presented as a personal educational endeavor, highlights the enduring demand for interactive learning tools in STEM. Its focus ...
Where did Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein originate?
Data for Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein was aggregated directly from the Hacker News community ecosystem, representing raw developer and early-adopter sentiment.
When was Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein publicly launched?
The initial public indexing or launch date for Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein within our tracked developer communities was recorded on June 9, 2026.
How popular is Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein?
Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein has achieved measurable traction, logging over 58 traction score and facilitating 16 recorded discussions or engagements.
Which technical categories define Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein?
Based on metadata extraction, Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein is categorized under topics such as: solar-system simulator, Newton, Einstein, guided tour.
What are some commercial alternatives to Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein?
Our semantic intelligence engine identifies potential commercial alternatives in the SaaS space, such as Interactive Simulations in Gemini, which offers overlapping value propositions.
How does the creator describe Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein?
The original author or development team describes the product as follows: "Just for fun and self education, I've built this over a weekend to teach myself why orbits exist, not just show planets going around. Something that was never clearly explain to me in school.
It o..."
Community Voice & Feedback
That doesn’t look right: in the 7th panel (too fast it escapes) the force and velocity of earth are constant? 0_o
Very nice, fairly efficient too.I don't like the explicit split of Newtonian and relativistic gravity, this is often how it's presented in educational content, but it creates too much confusion; for instance it gives the illusion that they are somehow separate theories even though Newtonian gravity is a limiting case of Einsteinian gravity when v
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the way the original mathematicians figured all this out absolutely melts my brainno computers, no calculators, barely working telescopes looking at the moons orbiting Jupiter(don't be limited by episode title, lots of amazing astrophysics in there)* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yhk1EZq9tY
My physics bias would like to see earth forming while it's constituents were orbiting around the sun.In any case, nice visualization.
Great job! 14 is misleading though - while the context is one day, the animation depicts axial precession which takes place over ~26,000 years
This is nice.I did laugh at how the Gravity built the Earth, with a tiny North America and all, and then as more mass was accumulated, North America got to get bigger and bigger and bigger!
> EinsteinHow are you handling relativistic effects in the N-body simulation?
Super fun! I might show it to my kids later today. Thanks for making it!
Looks great but on mobile the popover covers a quarter of the screen, obscuring the sun
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