This is kind of cool - Build your own solar system;

[A HERETIC I AM]

http://www.alienearths.org/online/interactives/planet_families/index.php

On edit to add...put a big planet near the sun and then a small one in a larger orbit. Watch the smaller world get sucked into the orbit of the larger planet.

You're a god!

[guitar man]

1. I love it!

The little planets don't stand a chance in a binary system with a bunch of gas giants. :D

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. LOL

I got one star to quickly orbit another and then put a little earth in the mix. Earth didn't last long at all!

[derby378]

3. No Tatooine for you!

Instructive. In order for a planet to maintain a stable orbit around two suns, those suns have to maintain a stable orbit around each other as well. Plus, the planet really needs to be further away than the simulator will allow.

[guitar man]

4. exactly

I wish there was a way to go full screen with it

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. I've had a pretty stable two star system running for quite a few minutes now...

with one star oscillating in the center and the other orbiting about a 1/2 stars-width away really quickly. Then I dropped a planet (the second planet over from the left) about 2/3rds the way to the edge of the screen. It has stayed stable for a while now.

It's a little addicting.

edit spelling

[derby378]

6. I finally managed to do it with the third planet from the right - sort of

That planet's orbit is really, really erratic. It's going to smack into one of the stars before too long, I can feel it.

[progressoid]

7. Addicting is an understatement.

I can't get three stars to last very long.

Wish it was full screen. Maybe a couple comets too.

[guitar man]

10. I've had this one stable for quite a while

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. Cool! n/t

[A HERETIC I AM]

11. Here's a screenshot of the one that's been running for 10 minutes now...

edit to say - make that running for about 25 minutes. Damn, time flies.

[struggle4progress]

17. Yeah, I've got a gas giant orbiting a binary rather stably. Terrestrials dropped between

the suns and the gas giant are usually quickly captured or ejected to deep space, it seems. I managed to launch one terrestrial nearly in the orbit of the giant giant so that it drags along behind it at almost constant distance

[A HERETIC I AM]

18. I've got two binaries running on 2 different windows, and I tried to do what you suggest...

- getting a small planet to follow a giant in the same orbit but the little one keeps being perturbed out of orbit and either flung off or crashing into the suns or the giant.

Damned thing is like a train set! I could play with it all night!

[struggle4progress]

19. Well, I tried to add a second terrestrial behind the first: it went into a wildly erratic

orbit, got captured, and perturbed the first terrestrial enough that it got captured too

Makes you want to code a 3D fast multipole star cloud

[struggle4progress]

22. Put a gas giant around a single star; launch two small terrestrials in nearly the same orbit

You can get periodic near collisions for a number of orbits before annihilation

[blondeatlast]

8. Very addicting. Thanks; sending this to my 7th grader's science teacher! nt

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. Wow! I'm flattered!

I am glad you found it worthy of sharing with your child's teacher.

It is pretty cool, if I do say so myself. The internets are a wonderful thing. Whoever wrote the program deserves a beer at least.

[hootinholler]

13. I thought it said build your own solar POWER system, lol.

:rofl:

Cool link!

-Hoot

[Soylent Brice]

14. you bastard. i've been playing with this thing for 45 minutes now!!

lol

awesome find! thanks!!

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. LOL...Yup! Me too!

Glad you liked it.

[Soylent Brice]

27. update.

since last night, i had eight planets going. came back this morning, and i still have 3 going. The three i still have are the mercury mars and jupiter equivalent, all going around a single star.

i'm impressed. most of my earlier ones crashed within minutes. LOL

[leftstreet]

16. Very cool!

[Razoor]

20. really addicting!!

nice link

[rucky]

21. I would make an awful God

my planets keep running into each other.

[A HERETIC I AM]

23. "My god is an awful god"

:rofl:

I'm not sure that catch phrase will sell well in middle America, but I like it!

[NoPasaran]

24. I am become Death destroyer of worlds

It's fun!

[we can do it]

25. OK Where Did The Last Hour and a Half Go

[Geoff R. Casavant]

26. "The yellow one's the sun!" n/t

[nemo137]

28. I kept blowing up planets.

I am Grand Moff Tarkin.

[Fumesucker]

29. This one isn't as pretty but is much more configurable..

And even more addicting than the one in the OP..

http://www.arachnoid.com/gravitation/big.html

[Canuckistanian]

30. Man, this thing is addictive

I'm trying to get ONE Earth-like planet and ONE Jupiter-like planet to orbit stably around a binary. I theorize that it can easily be done, but the damn things won't cooperate.

This God stuff isn't easy!

[A HERETIC I AM]

31. I'm glad you liked it.

I've been destroying suns on and off all day!

[superduperfarleft]

32. Goddammit, who kicked this thread?

I have work to do. :)

[TCJ70]

33. I had a planet throw so far out that it was...

..."disappeared" from my solar system. :(

Poor planet...

[JFN1]

34. Very cool!

Thanks for this!! What a great tool for teaching kids about gravity!

[Odin2005]

35. This is fun!

:rofl: