diff --git a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.spec.ts b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.spec.ts
index 766c8b5..a88b48f 100644
--- a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.spec.ts
@@ -908,6 +908,14 @@ describe('GalaxySystemSceneComponent camera-flight transitions', () => {
       );
     });
 
+    it('holds Earth to its 3-pixel floor at the arrival framing, where its true radius is far under a pixel', async () => {
+      Object.defineProperty((fixture.nativeElement as HTMLElement).querySelector('canvas')!, 'clientHeight', { value: 1000 });
+      const component = await enterTheSun(1.6);
+      const earth = component.systemRenderer.members.find((member) => member.id === 'earth')!.marker as THREE.Mesh;
+      const pixelAu = (2 * engine.visibleHalfHeight(engine.getCamera().position.distanceTo(earth.getWorldPosition(new THREE.Vector3())))) / 1000;
+      expect((earth.scale.x * (earth.geometry as THREE.SphereGeometry).parameters.radius) / pixelAu).toBeCloseTo(3, 3);
+    });
+
     it('leaves the system outwards even from a phone’s framing, which stands past the 400 AU it used to fly to', async () => {
       const component = await enterTheSun(390 / 844);
       const camera = engine.getCamera();
diff --git a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.ts b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.ts
index 2b08ca8..19ca04c 100644
--- a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.ts
@@ -861,8 +861,12 @@ export class GalaxySystemSceneComponent implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
     }
     const world = new THREE.Vector3();
     const drawnRadiusAu = new Map<string, number>();
-    const radiusOf = (marker: THREE.Object3D): number | undefined =>
+    // A body's marker is a unit sphere scaled to its radius, kept in `userData.radiusAu`; the
+    // star's is built at its own.
+    const sphereRadius = (marker: THREE.Object3D): number | undefined =>
       ((marker as THREE.Mesh).geometry as THREE.SphereGeometry | undefined)?.parameters?.radius;
+    const radiusOf = (marker: THREE.Object3D): number | undefined =>
+      (marker.userData['radiusAu'] as number | undefined) ?? sphereRadius(marker);
     const floorFor = (marker: THREE.Object3D): number => {
       marker.getWorldPosition(world);
       return (
@@ -891,7 +895,7 @@ export class GalaxySystemSceneComponent implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
           : Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY;
       const drawn = Math.min(Math.max(radiusAu, floorFor(marker)), Math.max(radiusAu, ceiling));
       drawnRadiusAu.set(id, drawn);
-      marker.scale.setScalar(drawn / radiusAu);
+      marker.scale.setScalar(drawn / sphereRadius(marker)!);
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/system-orbits-renderer.spec.ts b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/system-orbits-renderer.spec.ts
index ae69d21..348af9b 100644
--- a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/system-orbits-renderer.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/system-orbits-renderer.spec.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import { BodyRecord, RotationalElements } from '../../shared/models/body.model';
 import { ExoplanetRecord } from '../../shared/models/exoplanet.model';
 import { SystemOrbitsRenderer } from './system-orbits-renderer';
 import { bodyTexturePath, loadCachedTexture } from '../../shared/rendering/texture-catalog';
+import { bodyMarkerRadiusAu } from './system-framing';
 
 /** The clock's UT date that names a TDB one: TT - UT, which moves by under a second a year, earlier. */
 const utOf = (jdTdb: number): number => jdTdb - ttMinusUtSeconds(jdTdb) / 86400;
@@ -512,6 +513,27 @@ describe('photographs', () => {
   });
 });
 
+describe('markers', () => {
+  it('draws every body on the one sphere, scaled to its radius, and leaves that sphere when a system is left', () => {
+    const records: BodyRecord[] = [2500, 60000].map((radiusKm, index) => ({
+      id: `body-${index}`, systemStarId: 0, name: `Body ${index}`, kind: 'planet', radiusKm, orbitSource: 'test',
+      orbit: { semiMajorAxisAu: 1 + index, eccentricity: 0, inclinationDeg: 0, longitudeOfAscendingNodeDeg: 0, argumentOfPeriapsisDeg: 0, meanAnomalyAtEpochDeg: 0, epochJd: DEFAULT_EPOCH_JD },
+      rates: keplerRates(1 + index, GM_SUN_AU3_PER_DAY2)
+    }));
+    const renderer = new SystemOrbitsRenderer(records, [exoplanet({ radiusEarth: 1.1 })], undefined, 1);
+    const meshes = renderer.members.map((member) => member.marker as THREE.Mesh);
+    expect(new Set(meshes.map((mesh) => mesh.geometry)).size).toBe(1);
+    [2500, 60000, 1.1 * 6371].forEach((radiusKm, index) => {
+      const sphere = meshes[index].geometry as THREE.SphereGeometry;
+      expect(meshes[index].scale.x * sphere.parameters.radius).toBeCloseTo(bodyMarkerRadiusAu(radiusKm), 12);
+    });
+    const disposed = vi.fn();
+    meshes[0].geometry.addEventListener('dispose', disposed);
+    renderer.dispose();
+    expect(disposed).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+});
+
 describe('derived surfaces', () => {
   const maps = (renderer: SystemOrbitsRenderer): Array<THREE.Texture | null> =>
     renderer.members.map((member) => ((member.marker as THREE.Mesh).material as THREE.MeshStandardMaterial).map);
@@ -553,7 +575,7 @@ describe('derived surfaces', () => {
 describe('exoplanet size without a measured radius', () => {
   const radiusOf = (overrides: Partial<ExoplanetRecord>): number => {
     const renderer = new SystemOrbitsRenderer([], [exoplanet(overrides)], undefined, 1);
-    return ((renderer.members[0].marker as THREE.Mesh).geometry as THREE.SphereGeometry).parameters.radius;
+    return renderer.members[0].marker.userData['radiusAu'];
   };
   const EARTH_AU = 6371 / 149597870.7;
 
@@ -769,7 +791,7 @@ describe('solar-system bodies against Horizons', () => {
     const marker = renderer.members.find((member) => member.id === id)!.marker as THREE.Mesh;
     const centre = worldPosition(id);
     const towards = point.clone().sub(centre).normalize();
-    const radius = (marker.geometry as THREE.SphereGeometry).parameters.radius;
+    const radius = marker.userData['radiusAu'];
     const hit = new THREE.Raycaster(centre.clone().addScaledVector(towards, radius * 4), towards.clone().negate()).intersectObject(marker)[0];
     return { eastDeg: (hit.uv!.x - 0.5) * 360, latDeg: (hit.uv!.y - 0.5) * 180 };
   }
diff --git a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/system-orbits-renderer.ts b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/system-orbits-renderer.ts
index 08b8041..4d4084e 100644
--- a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/system-orbits-renderer.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/system-orbits-renderer.ts
@@ -205,6 +205,11 @@ function reshapeOrbitLine(line: THREE.Line, elements: OrbitalElements): void {
  * frame: a texture is copied to the GPU in the first frame that draws it, and the 28 maps, which
  * arrive within 40 ms of each other, made that one frame a 160-210 ms task on entering the Sun's
  * system (copyExternalImageToTexture, about 20 megapixels of JPEG).
+ *
+ * Every marker is the one unit sphere, {@link MARKER_SPHERE}, scaled to the body's radius, which
+ * it also keeps as `userData.radiusAu`: built one a body, the 38 spheres of the Sun's system took
+ * 12 ms of the 15 ms the renderer took to build and, with their upload, made a return to the
+ * system a long task of 52 to 70 ms, where the 18 bodies before had made none.
  */
 function buildMarker(
   id: string | undefined,
@@ -214,7 +219,6 @@ function buildMarker(
   deferSurface: (paint: () => void) => void,
   deferPhotograph: (material: THREE.MeshStandardMaterial, texture: THREE.Texture) => void
 ): THREE.Mesh {
-  const geometry = new THREE.SphereGeometry(bodyMarkerRadiusAu(radiusKm), MARKER_WIDTH_SEGMENTS, MARKER_HEIGHT_SEGMENTS);
   const photograph = id ? bodyTexturePath(id) : undefined;
   // null, not undefined, until there is one: three warns "parameter 'map' has value of
   // undefined" for every body built so, eleven of them on entering the Sun's system.
@@ -235,7 +239,11 @@ function buildMarker(
       material.needsUpdate = true;
     });
   }
-  return new THREE.Mesh(geometry, material);
+  const marker = new THREE.Mesh(MARKER_SPHERE, material);
+  const radiusAu = bodyMarkerRadiusAu(radiusKm);
+  marker.scale.setScalar(radiusAu);
+  marker.userData = { radiusAu };
+  return marker;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -266,6 +274,8 @@ function starLight(): THREE.PointLight {
  */
 const MARKER_WIDTH_SEGMENTS = 64;
 const MARKER_HEIGHT_SEGMENTS = 32;
+/** Shared by every marker of every system, so it is never disposed; see `buildMarker`. */
+const MARKER_SPHERE = new THREE.SphereGeometry(1, MARKER_WIDTH_SEGMENTS, MARKER_HEIGHT_SEGMENTS);
 
 /**
  * A drawn radius, in Earth radii, for an exoplanet that has a mass and no measured radius — 1 076
@@ -434,7 +444,8 @@ export class SystemOrbitsRenderer {
         // A child of the sphere, so it lies in the equator the IAU pole turns the sphere into and
         // is scaled with it where the marker is held to its pixel floor. Jupiter's, Uranus's and
         // Neptune's rings are left out: dark, narrow or dusty, they are too faint to see here.
-        const ring = saturnRing(body.radiusKm, bodyMarkerRadiusAu(body.radiusKm));
+        // In the sphere's own units, its radius being 1.
+        const ring = saturnRing(body.radiusKm, 1);
         tracked.marker.add(ring);
         this.trackDisposable(ring.geometry, ring.material as THREE.Material);
       }
@@ -613,7 +624,9 @@ export class SystemOrbitsRenderer {
     this.grid?.dispose();
     this.tethers?.dispose();
     for (const { geometry, material } of this.disposables) {
-      geometry.dispose();
+      if (geometry !== MARKER_SPHERE) {
+        geometry.dispose();
+      }
       material.dispose();
     }
     // Detach as well as dispose. A star-to-star hop builds a new renderer and drops the old