AstroGrav Astronomy Software
AstroGrav for Windows and Mac is a full-featured, high precision solar system simulator that calculates the gravitational interactions between all astronomical bodies, so that the motions of asteroids and comets are simulated much more accurately than with planetarium applications. The effects of general relativity and radiation pressure can be taken into account, and superb interactive 3D viewing allows you to easily rotate and zoom your view while the solar system evolves.
Features
The AstroGrav software has a huge range of features and viewing options including:
- Views from space or any object, with planetarium-style views from any location on Earth
- Multiple views animated simultaneously, with dynamically calculated orbits and tracks
- Comprehensive tabular data with over 30 editable fields available for each object
- Simulation time steps from a fraction of a second to thousands of years
- Constellations and over 100,000 background stars from the Hipparcos catalogue, with comprehensive data for every star
- Tens of millions of additional background stars available as a separate download
- Celestial coordinate grids: ecliptic, equatorial, galactic, and horizontal
- A wide range of physical units, including astronomical, metric, and imperial
- Editing facilities that allow you to create new objects manually, or import from a database of hundreds of thousands of asteroids and comets
- A wide variety of illustrative sample files that can be used as they are, or used as the basis for your own simulations
To find a range of illustrative movies, click on the movies item in the menu bar on the left.
Multi-Purpose
Because it calculates the motions of bodies from their gravitational interactions, AstroGrav is not restricted to just the solar system. Any situation in which gravity is the only significant force can be simulated, and the illustrative sample files that are included with AstroGrav include many examples. Systems that can be simulated include:
- Exoplanet systems
- Protoplanets that evolve into planetary systems
- Rubble piles and their interactions with massive bodies
- Complex star systems, including colliding globular clusters
- Projectiles and bouncing balls
Educational
The AstroGrav software also has a great educational potential. AstroGrav can be used to visualize and understand many aspects of physical, gravitational, and astronomical systems including:
- Basic concepts of mass, position, velocity, acceleration, force, momentum, and energy
- Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion and Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation
- Many body systems and the n-body problem
- Orbits and Lagrange points
- Interchange of potential energy and kinetic energy in gravitational systems
- Projectiles and escape velocities
- Gravitational slingshots used in space missions
AstroGrav Users
AstroGrav is ideal for any of the following:
- Astronomers, astrophysicists, and researchers interested in studying the evolution of gravitational systems
- Teachers and educationalists seeking to deliver courses on math, physics, astronomy, or astrophysics
- Students of math, physics, astronomy, or astrophysics
- Anyone else interested in studying how objects move and interact under the force of gravity
Free To Use
AstroGrav is available for both Mac and Windows in the following languages:
Dutch
English (International)
English (United Kingdom)
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish
AstroGrav is financed entirely through donations. It is free to use, but please make a donation if you can afford to do so. This will support the continued development of the software, and the purchase of necessary equipment.
The astronomical software comes complete with a tutorial and full documentation, and you can download and use it immediately.