Solar System

Final Project: Solar System

You've learned all the building blocks. Now combine them into a small solar system:

• Scene with dark background and fog
• Sun at the center with an emissive material (glows without light)
• Planets orbiting at different radii using Groups
• Lights from the sun (PointLight)
• Stars particle system in the background
• Animation with delta time for frame-rate independence

Emissive Materials

MeshStandardMaterial can self-illuminate with emissive and emissiveIntensity:

new THREE.MeshStandardMaterial({
  color: 0xffaa00,
  emissive: 0xff6600,
  emissiveIntensity: 1.5
})

PointLight with Distance

A PointLight from the sun illuminates planets:

const sunLight = new THREE.PointLight(0xfff4cc, 3, 100);
sunLight.position.set(0, 0, 0);
scene.add(sunLight);

Orbit Groups Pattern

Each planet lives in its own orbit group. Rotating the group orbits the planet:

const orbit = new THREE.Group();
const planet = new THREE.Mesh(geo, mat);
planet.position.x = orbitRadius;
orbit.add(planet);
scene.add(orbit);

// In animation loop:
orbit.rotation.y += delta * orbitSpeed;

Your Task

Implement createPlanet(radius, color, orbitRadius) that:

• Creates a sphere mesh with MeshStandardMaterial of the given color
• Wraps it in an orbit Group with the planet at (orbitRadius, 0, 0)
• Returns { mesh, orbit }