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How to use Galactic Year: Sun's Orbit 3D Explorer

  1. Open the Galactic Year: Sun's Orbit 3D Explorer and wait for the canvas to paint.
  2. Drag to orbit the view and scroll to zoom in on the spiral disk and the orbit ring.
  3. Choose Top-down view to see the orbit as a circle, or Edge-on view to see the Sun bob through the disk plane.
  4. Scrub the elapsed-time slider from 0 to 4,600 million years to move the Sun to any point since it formed.
  5. Press Play to animate elapsed time continuously, or Pause to hold a position and read the facts panel.

Need timing tips? See when to use. Comparing apps? See vs alternatives.

Companion guide for the Galactic Year: Sun's Orbit 3D Explorer. This page sits alongside the when-to-use guide and the comparison against alternatives, so you can move between control instructions, timing guidance, and the numbers table without leaving the guide set.

The explorer itself runs entirely client-side in the browser with the vendored three.js engine - no account, no install, and no scene data leaves your device. For the wider picture, the Space 3D collection also has a Milky Way Map explorer and a Sagittarius A* Star Orbit explorer.

Reviewed by the Free Tool Online editorial team · Tested in the current versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge before publishing. No account is needed to use any tool. Report a bug - we triage within 72 hours. · Last refreshed April 2026.

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