Quaoar in 3D: live position and orbit

A large Kuiper Belt object that surprised astronomers in 2023 with a system of rings orbiting far beyond the distance where rings should be stable; its moon Weywot may be responsible for keeping them from collapsing.

Quaoar is shown at its real position, computed from NASA/JPL ephemeris data. The view opens on Quaoar; 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.

Radius

547 km¹ (derived value)

Mass

1.21 × 10²¹ kg¹ (derived value)

Surface gravity

0.27 m/s²¹ (derived value)

Mean distance from the Sun

43.335 AU² (derived value)

Orbital period

104 128 days² (derived value)

Rotation period

8.84 hours¹

Known moons

1 (as of October 2026)³

Sources

1. Margoti et al., Size, shape, density, and atmospheric limit of (50000) Quaoar revealed from 14 years of stellar occultation. preprint. 2026. read 2026-09-17. https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.06450
2. NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics, Horizons System (osculating orbital elements). read 2026-09-17. https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/
3. NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics, Small-Body Database. read 2026-09-17. https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html