Patroclus in 3D: live position and orbit

A Jupiter Trojan asteroid that travels with a companion, Menoetius: the two orbit each other. NASA’s Lucy is due to fly past the pair on 3 March 2033, the last encounter of its planned tour.Patroclus is shown at its real position, computed from NASA/JPL ephemeris data. The view opens on Patroclus; you can travel in time, switch between the educational overview and the true-scale voyage, and compare it with every other body of the solar system.

Mean distance from the Sun

5.206 AU¹ (derived value)

Orbital period

4 339 days¹ (derived value)

Synodic rotation

4.28 days²

Known moons

1 (as of October 2026)²

Missions

Lucy MIssion

Sources

NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics, Horizons System (osculating orbital elements). read 2026-09-17. https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/

NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics, Small-Body Database. read 2026-09-17. https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html

3D Solar System

Galaxy

01 / 06 Initializing...

Display settings

In the scene

A column header sets the whole column, a group row its group, a row one object. Spacecraft and interstellar objects start hidden.

What the scene shows, object by object
Object	Label	Object	Orbit

Asteroid and comet field

Drawn in Exploration mode, one dot per known orbit.

Rendering

Accessibility and units

Offline use

Download every ephemeris file so the app can place the bodies at any date without a network. Nothing is downloaded until you ask.

Navigation

Drag orbit the view
Scroll · pinch zoom in / out
Click a body or its label to travel to it
Educ · Explo compressed overview vs true-scale voyage
Clock · date scroll to time-travel, tap to pick

Textures: USGS Astrogeology / NASA-JPL (public domain) · Solar System Scope (CC BY 4.0) · NOAA ETOPO 2022 · Halley, Itokawa, Gaspra, Ida: Philip Stooke / NASA PDS.
Illustrative surfaces: Bodies never mapped globally have an illustrative texture, not a scientific map; the body card says so, and Sources lists them.
3D shape models: NASA PDS: NEAR (Eros), Hayabusa (Itokawa), Galileo (Ida, Gaspra) · ISAS/JAXA: Hayabusa2 (Ryugu) · NASA/Goddard SVS: OSIRIS-REx (Bennu)
Data: Astronomy Engine · NASA/JPL Horizons · JPL SBDB · NASA GIBS · NASA Planetary Data System (mission context products) · IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · ERA5, Copernicus Climate Change Service (ECMWF)