Gravity simulator is a class of software used by computational astronomers to simulate the behavior of celestial objects. Unlike how we were taught in schools, celestial objects never really orbit the sun in a perfect conic section. Rather the orbit of any planets are influenced by the gravitational interactions of other objects inside and outside the planetary system.

While the algebraic calculation we learn in our physic class in high school could be solved easily, it doesn’t really give us a good picture of what actually happening. We need the differential calculus to predict the dynamic behavior of those celestial objects over time. The basic equation used to simulate the behavior of celestial object is actually very simple. Yet that simple set equations is capable of generating complex behavior.

Computational astronomers also use gravity simulators to do experiment they wont be able to perform in real life. The image above for example, is the plot of paths showing what is going to happen if a 100 solar-mass black hole enter our solar system. No astronomer can perform such experiment in real life. Even if they could perform it, we probably don’t want said experiment to be performed. By using gravity simulator however, we could study what is actually going to happen in such hypothetical cases.

Gravity simulators could also be used to plot the relative movement of other planets relative to a planet inside a planetary system. For planetary systems where most celestial bodies orbit their star in elliptic movement, the plotted path is going to form complex geometric shape like shown above.

Even if most objects orbit the sun in almost circular orbit, the path plot of other planets relative to a planet is going to be complex. The image above show the imaginary movement of Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars relative to earth. In the image above we observe the retrograde movement of those objects as seen from Earth. Retrograde movement is the apparent incoming and distancing movement of planets as observed from other objects orbiting the same star.

If you search around the internet, you are going to find many kind of gravity simulators available. In fact making gravity simulators is the favourite practice for students beginning their step in the study of computational physics and n-body problems. The image above was taken from a browser based gravity simulator. You only need your browser in order to run this particular gravity simulator

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