Exoplanetary systems

[Bobbyk]

I'm trying to create a system around Tau ceti, which raises a couple questions:

To make Tau ceti, I tried starting with the Sun and then adjusting the mass, radius, age and luminosity. But to get a mass of 0.8 suns and a luminosity of 0.5 L sun, I need to turn off the realism constraint. Is there a better way of doing this? (The realism constraint wants a luminosity closer to 0.3 L sun.)

Is there a way/it would be great if there were away to (1) observe the sky from the surface of a body, (2) observe the wobble of a star from a distant vantage point, and (3) observe the brightness (varying due to transits) of a star from a distant vantage point.

[C7]

If you're unable to make the star behave how you like, it's best to turn off the "realistic" constraint. Since that is using data from the stellar evolution tables we have.

You can observe the sky by selecting a body, zooming way in over the point you want, and pressing "c" to land the camera on the surface. This is going to be a bit rough at this point, and we're hoping to improve it in later updates.

The wobble of a star, should be able to be seen, depending on the intensity. But the simplest way to visualize it is to go the velocity and then click on the chart icon. It will allow you to see how the velocity oscillates over time.

You can see the light curve in a similar fashion, by charting the luminosity.

Here's an article on some of the exoplanet experiments in game.

http://universesandbox.com/blog/2014/12/exoplanet-detection-demo/