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Author Topic: Circumquadnary Planet  (Read 3287 times)

Chaou

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Circumquadnary Planet
« on: October 31, 2013, 07:47:44 AM »
Over the last few weeks I've been trying several different simulations on US2 to attempt to create a quadruple star system where the planet orbits all four stars, instead of just two at the same time.

From trial and error I found it doesn't matter as much how many stars the planet is orbiting, but how large the gap is between the stars. The star's orbit must be small enough so that the planet's orbit will not be destabilized by drastic change in position of the stars during their orbits. The star's orbit also cannot be too small either, or the two pairs of stars gravitational influence will decay their orbit and some of the stars will be sent flying out of the system.

Achieving the perfect combination for orbits like these are best achieved with stars with relatively small diameters and mass, because you can get them as close as possible without disrupting the system.
Happy simulating :P

I'll be uploading the system soon for everyone to see if they want to use the same technique to create multiple star systems.

atomic7732

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Re: Circumquadnary Planet
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2013, 09:03:03 AM »
Omnigeek or someone said that you need about a 1:5 or larger ratio of the binary orbit and the circumbinary planet, I would imagine this holds true for the second binary and if you treat the two binaries as two stars (because it acts that way basically) that you could extend that.