Simulating the solar system with under 100 lines of code in Python

This is a Python program I wrote to simulate a quite realistic solar system with minimal lines of code.

Download a full animation video.

Author

Chong-Chong He (che1234 @ umd.edu)

Modules required

numpy, matplotlib, datetime

Optional: astroquery (to retrieve planets data from nasa.org and generate initial condition)

How to run

With the required modules installed, simply run the program, e.g. in UNIX command line, with

python solar_system.py

Modify sim_duration in the beginning of the code to change the duration of the simulation.

To make a different initial condition, modify and run get_initial_condition.py.

References

• JPL HORIZONS on-line solar system database