All eight worlds, riding a moving star. Drag to orbit the view.
Textbook orrery diagrams show planets looping around a fixed Sun. But the Sun is a passenger too: it orbits the centre of the Milky Way at roughly 230 km/s, completing one galactic year every 225–250 million years. Because all eight planets orbit a moving Sun, their true paths through space are helices — stretched spirals — not closed ellipses.
A famous viral animation drew the planets corkscrewing behind the Sun like a drill bit, with the orbits perpendicular to travel and the planets “dragged along in the Sun’s wake”. That’s wrong on both counts. The ecliptic is tilted roughly 60° to the Sun’s direction of travel, so the helix leans — and the planets are not dragged behind: for part of every orbit they are ahead of the Sun along its path. Switch between the modes above to compare the honest geometry with the myth.
Relative to nearby stars, the Sun also drifts at about 19 km/s toward the solar apex, in Hercules near the bright star Vega. The cyan arrow marks the direction of travel.
Orbits are drawn circular and coplanar (real eccentricities and inclinations are small); periods and starting positions use each planet’s real values for today’s date. In Readable mode, orbital distances are gently compressed so Mercury and Neptune can share one view — switch to True AU for honest proportions. Planet sizes are exaggerated (to true scale they would be invisible specks), and their painted faces are artistic renderings lit from the Sun’s actual direction. The travel-speed slider is compressed by default; at the Sun’s honest 48.5 AU per year the helix stretches almost straight. Press TRUE and see for yourself.