CelestialSim

A gravitational N-body simulator implemented in C#, modeling celestial mechanics using Newtonian gravity with numerical integration. For a more detailed readme, check out the PDF version.

Simulation Parameters

$\Delta t$ is the time step. A smaller time step yields more precise results, but more computational power is required.

$G$ is the universal gravitational constant.

$\Delta$ represents a "fast-forward" mechanism. Because the simulation is in real time, it might take a long time to observe a significant change. In that case, $\Delta$ is added to the total elapsed time since last calculation $\epsilon$, which in turn increases the number of calculation steps $n$. When you use fast-forwarding, the simulation calculates all the skipped steps while keeping the same small time step (Δt) for accuracy.

Controls

• Scroll: Zoom
• Left click + drag: Pan view
• Left click a body: Select
• Middle click: Add new body