Stellar System Simulation

Inspiration

We wanted to build the solar modeling games that we played in middle school.

What it does

Simulates the 3d motion of objects in space using a Newtonian model of physics.

How we built it

We started with a mathematical equation to model our algorithm for the motion of the celestial bodies. Then, we created a model of the celestial bodies themselves and plotted them on a cartesian plane. According to the gravity system of our program, the bodies would move along the plane.

Challenges we ran into

Initially, we wanted to show this using JavaFX, simulating the motion in 3d. However, JavaFX created issues in implementation and animation to show this, alongside issues with the camera system in JavaFX.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

One of our team members was able to rebuild the project in C++ with the Java code as a template. Also, we were able to find a mostly stable system with three bodies. Additionally, our gravity system was very accurate.

What we learned

We learned about the applications for gradient descent in modeling physics and how that can be ported to software to model it. We also learned about camera rotation in JavaFX.