Softward question capabilities

[San]

Hey,
I am world building, and want to test my ideas, which involve stability of a solar system around an F star, and play with options such as a hot Jupiter and some co orbital moons, a terrestrial planet with a moon, or a couple of planets within the HZ and explore how close a planet would need to be to exhibit tidal locking, how close orbits of said planets could be and maintain stability, ascertain orbit periods, and the like.

I am not a Physics major(I'm a chemistry major) and worry that my math skills and abilities to manipulate formulas may not be of the caliber to handle your software.

Could your software take these types of measures (assuming I put star masses in!) and build solar systems for me? Will I be able to do it? Or is this not possible unless I'm at the Seattle Institute, using their virtual planet laboratory?!

Thanks,
Sanbeko

[atomic7732]

well, i ain't even in college and I use it.

[Dan Dixon]

Sanbeko,

Universe Sandbox is certainly capable of running simulations similar to what you've describe. Although the creation tools for new solar systems are admittedly weak and data analisys tools are missing altogether.

I would describe Universe Sandbox as a representative simulator and not something that you should use to launch rockets to other planets or base scientific work upon.

Create new systems is fairly straightforward by editing the XML system/simulation files, but it doesn't currently have any way of graphing data so any conclusions about stability would be from visual observation.

You should check out Gravity Simulator by Tony:
http://www.orbitsimulator.com/
It has the ability to rotating frame and exporting the results of simulations for graphing. It also has an export feature so any simulations you create can be visualized with Universe Sandbox.