Try Creating A Planetary System

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Astronomy, Earth & Space Science, Cosmology, Astrophysics, Nature of Science

Ed Hessler

Can you create a planetary system that lasts for 1000 years?

This question is posed by Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). And a game, Super Planet Crash, offers you the opportunity to be a planetary system maker--one with up to 10 planets.

Bodies you can add, each increasing in mass, include Earth, Ice Giant, Giant Planet, Brown Dwarf, Dwarf Star. The planets are constrained within a defined circle.

There is information about the game makers, links to what each of the bodies mentioned above are, etc.

The game has an end: 1000 years or when a planet is  expelled, a not unusual event as planets are made.

This game makes the universe, the cosmos, even grander, due to physics.