Atlas

Atlas — moon orbiting Saturn, shown live in Cosmoscope, a real-time 3D map of the universe.

A flying saucer in orbit: ring dust settling onto Atlas’s equator built the smooth disc that makes it one of the strangest shapes in the solar system.

Radius
15.1 km
Orbit
138k km from Saturn
Period
0.60 days
Orbits
Just outside the A ring
Shape
A smooth flying saucer

Seeing Atlas in real time

Cosmoscope puts Atlas at its true position in the solar system, computed from JPL-derived ephemeris and updated continuously. Open the live 3D view to see, in real time, how far Atlas is from the Sun and from Earth right now, how many minutes or hours light takes to cross that gap, and how fast it is moving along its orbit. Scrub the timeline to place Atlas where it was on any past date, or where it will be years from now.

Interactive universe A living map of the solar system
Interactive universe
Waking the solar system…