An artist's concept of our solar system showing a sense of scale and distance. NASA Astronomer James O'Donoghue works at Japan's space agency and makes animations in his free time. His simple, short, award-winning videos illustrate the physics of our solar system. O'Donoghue's best animations show how the planets spin, where the solar system's true center lies, and how slow light speed can be. James O'Donoghue went viral for the first time in December 2018.He was a planetary scientist for NASA at the time, but the federal government had temporarily shut down due to budget disputes in Congress.