Have you ever stopped to wonder how much stuff is orbiting around the earth? In fact, there are a ton of satellites, spacecraft, and space junk floating out there above our heads. According to Azmth, it’s over 15,600 cataloged objects.
Azmth is a free site that tracks and visualizes every known object orbiting our planet. Opening the site, you’ll see a beautiful interactive 3D globe that displays every object in real time. It’s extremely thorough too, not only tracking active satellites, but also retired spacecraft, rocket bodies, and other bits of space junk.
When you load up the site, you immediately notice just how crowded space has become. Thousands of tiny points circle Earth in every direction, creating a web of activity that’s normally invisible to us. On the Google Earth-like map, you can zoom in, rotate the globe, and click on individual objects to learn more about them. You can also individually search for any object by its name to quickly find it. Each entry includes details such as its name, orbit, altitude, and speed.
Azmth does a really good job of making complex space data approachable even to laymen like me. You don’t need a background in astronomy or aerospace engineering to understand what you’re looking at. I’ve found myself tracking everything from Starlink satellites, the International Space Station, and even hunting down clusters of old rocket stages.
The site also gives you a better sense of the immense scale of modern space activity. If you’ve ever looked up at the night sky and wondered what might be passing overhead, Azmth is a fascinating place to start. It turns orbital data into something you can see, explore, and understand.
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