Solar_System

Interactive 3D model of our Solar System plotted in matplotlib. Fun side project made to learn more about 3D animation in Python 3.

Instructions:

How to setup:

In terminal/cmd prompt, clone the repository into the desired location:

foo@bar:~$ git clone https://github.com/Shellywell123/Solar_System.git

How to update:

Navigate to program directory & pull the latest version of the repo:

foo@bar:~$ cd Solar_System/

foo@bar:~$ git pull

How to run:

In terminal/cmd prompt, execute 'main.py' with python 3:

foo@bar:~$ python3 main.py

Features

• Approximately accurate orbital distances with scaled planet sizes
• Rendered surfaces of planets, moons and gas rings
• Asteroid belts
• Parallax background stars
• Runs on both Windows and Linux systems

Current Features in Development

• live positioning of objects
• Rings don't currently render infont/behind planets correctly
• Using aspect ratio 1:2 as axis doesnt scale with screen size

Potential Goals

• Image overlays for planet surfaces (will allow for planet rotations to be visible)
• Live position of planets (animated + option to pan through time)
• Make each dash of a planets orbit represent one day
• Accurate eliptical orbits with processions (all orbits currently fixed inline with x axis)
• Approximate star positions and brightnesses in background
• Add man-made satelites and space mission trajectories

Sources

planet image source
pluto image source
saturn rings source other textures found in google images