Earth's orbit is not fixed - its shape, tilt, and wobble each cycle over tens of thousands of years. Scrub the time slider to see all three real cycles move together across the last 800,000 years.
Published figures: NASA's Earth Observatory puts orbital eccentricity's cycle at 90,000 to 100,000 years with a maximum value of 0.07, and axial tilt (obliquity) between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees on a cycle averaging about 40,000 years. The slow axial-precession wobble is commonly cited at about 26,000 years.
Drag to orbit and scroll or pinch to zoom. Scrub the time slider, press Play, or jump straight to today or 800,000 years ago.
Milankovitch Cycles 3D Explorer
Earth's orbit around the Sun slowly changes shape, its axial tilt slowly changes angle, and its spin axis slowly wobbles - three real, published cycles that combine to shift how much sunlight reaches the poles over tens of thousands of years. Scrub the time slider from 0 to 800,000 years before present and watch all three move together on one timeline.
Serbian scientist Milutin Milankovitch worked out in the early 20th century that these three orbital cycles, not any change in the Sun itself, pace Earth's ice ages. NASA's published figures show eccentricity cycling over 90,000 to 100,000 years, obliquity (axial tilt) cycling over about 40,000 years between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees, and the axial-precession wobble commonly cited at about 26,000 years.
- Scrub the time slider from 0 (today) to 800,000 years before present, or press Play to watch it move automatically
- Jump straight to today or to 800,000 years ago with the quick buttons
- Read the current eccentricity, axial tilt, and precession-wobble position as the timeline moves
- Drag to orbit the scene, scroll or pinch to zoom
- Runs fully in the browser with the vendored three.js engine - no account, no upload
| Cycle | Published range / period | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Orbital eccentricity | 0 to 0.07, cycling over 90,000 to 100,000 years | NASA Earth Observatory |
| Axial tilt (obliquity) | 22.1° to 24.5°, cycling over about 40,000 years | NASA Earth Observatory |
| Axial precession (wobble) | about 26,000 years per full wobble | Widely published geoscience figures |
| Mid-Pleistocene Transition | ice-age pacing shifted from the ~41,000-year obliquity beat to the ~100,000-year eccentricity beat around 800,000 years ago | Published paleoclimate literature |
This page composes all three cycles on one long timeline. For a single-mechanism deep dive, see the Precession of the Equinoxes 3D Explorer for the axial-precession wobble and the celestial-pole star path alone, the Axial Tilt Comparison 3D Explorer for a side-by-side of all 8 planets' current tilt angle, and the Seasons Earth 3D Explorer for how tilt drives seasons within a single year.
Everything renders on your device with WebGL. The 3D engine loads once (about 0.7 MB) and is cached.
This is an educational approximation, not a paleoclimate reconstruction - each curve is a single idealized wave at the real published period and amplitude, not the true multi-harmonic orbital solution scientists use, and the scene does not plot an actual ice-core or ocean-sediment proxy record.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the three Milankovitch cycles?
Eccentricity (how elliptical Earth's orbit is, cycling 90,000 to 100,000 years between 0 and 0.07), obliquity (axial tilt, cycling about 40,000 years between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees), and axial precession (the slow wobble of the spin axis, commonly cited at about 26,000 years), per NASA's published figures.
Do these cycles actually cause ice ages?
Yes - published paleoclimate research shows ice-age pacing tracked the roughly 41,000-year obliquity cycle from about 1 to 3 million years ago, then shifted to the roughly 100,000-year eccentricity cycle starting around 800,000 years ago, a shift known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition.
Are the curves on this page real measured data?
Each curve is an idealized single wave at the real published period and range for that cycle, not the true multi-harmonic orbital solution scientists compute and not a plotted ice-core or ocean-sediment proxy record. It is an educational approximation, disclosed as such.
How is this different from the Precession of the Equinoxes explorer?
The Precession of the Equinoxes 3D Explorer teaches the axial-precession wobble alone, including the celestial-pole star path (Polaris today versus Vega around 14,000 CE). This page composes all three cycles - eccentricity, obliquity, and precession - on one 800,000-year timeline and names the ice-age consequence.
How is this different from the Axial Tilt Comparison and Seasons Earth explorers?
The Axial Tilt Comparison 3D Explorer is a static side-by-side of all 8 planets' current tilt angle with no time axis. The Seasons Earth 3D Explorer shows how tilt drives seasons within a single year. This page instead scrubs 800,000 years to show how tilt, orbit shape, and wobble slowly change together.
Does this page need an upload or account?
No. The scene renders fully in your browser with the vendored three.js engine - nothing is uploaded and no account is required.