AstroGrav 4.1 Released for Windows and Mac

AstroGrav adds many new features and improvements to its precision solar system simulator

20th December 2019 - AstroGrav 4.1 includes a new small body search feature that makes it much easier to import a known comet or asteroid into a simulation. Evolving to a particular event has been greatly improved with the addition of many new options, and improvements to 3D views and updated sample simulations are among the many other improvements in this version. Full details are available from:

Small Body Searches

New 'JPL Search' and 'MPC Search' options make it much easier to import a particular comet or asteroid into a solar system simulation. All the user needs to do is to type a name, number, or designation into one of the search fields, and AstroGrav will search through the huge number of known small bodies to find and import the one requested. The 'JPL Search' searches through the hundreds of thousands of small bodies listed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the 'MPC Search' searches through the tens of thousands of small bodies listed by the IAU's Minor Planet Center.

Evolving To Events

There is a greatly expanded set of options when evolving to events, with the full list of event types now being pericenter, apocenter, ascending/descending node, opposition, conjunction, quadrature, transit, occultation, overlap, minimum/maximum distance, minimum/maximum angle, and collision. The choice of objects involved in an event is now much more flexible, and any object can be used as the viewpoint, instead of the Earth being the compulsory viewpoint as in earlier versions. Amongst other advantages, this means that evolving to events is now available in all simulations, instead of being restricted to just solar system simulations.

Other Improvements

Viewing from the home location has been made much easier, and there are several improvements to views that make them both look better and have an improved frame rate. The solar system sample simulations have been updated to 2020, with 20 recently discovered moons of Saturn and the interstellar comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) added. Some commands are now much faster, and bugs that could prevent faint background stars from displaying have been fixed. Many other improvements and bug fixes complete this major upgrade.

Upgrade

The AstroGrav 4.1 update is free of charge to all AstroGrav 4 license holders. They may download and install the update immediately from:

About AstroGrav Astronomy Software

AstroGrav Astronomy Software produces astronomical and gravity simulation software for astronomers, researchers, educationalists, and students. For more information, visit the company's website:

Press Contact:
Russell Calvert
AstroGrav Astronomy Software
russcalvert@astrograv.co.uk

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