Motion of randomly generated stars

In summary, Dan is planning on doing a million star simulation. He has questions about how far away stars can be from each other and how clusters of stars will behave.
  • #1
dgroth
3
0
Hello, I am new to this forum - and impressed with the posts. I have recently developed an addiction to astrophysics. I wish to do the following:

- define a spherical "sandbox" with a radius of let's say 1, which I think of as "universe"
- within that sphere I generate N number of points. Each point have the following attributes:
1) a coordinate: p(x, y, z)
2) a velocity: v(x, y, z)
3) a mass
- define time as t

Then, kick-off a program (that I'm hoping to write) which will represent all the points (stars) as I move to t+1, t+2 etc... Many points should collide, others turn into orbits, others will fly outside my "universe". I wish my model to be "accurate" according to gravity fields of each star.

Can anyone share with me how I could go about achieve this goal ? (let's start with 3 stars)

In advance, thank you.
Regards, Dan.
 
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  • #2
n stars requires n^2 calculations. you'll run out of processing power rather quickly I'm afraid.
 
  • #3
granpa said:
n stars requires n^2 calculations. you'll run out of processing power rather quickly I'm afraid.

I apperciate the calculation involved. But thanks for drawing my attention to this. However, I have access to a rather massive computer all for myself: IBM p6 with 64CPUs and 256GB of RAM. Anyway, I have already started working on a grid solution to distribute the calculations, if necessary (which I assume it will).

Regards, Dan.
 
  • #4
granpa said:
n stars requires n^2 calculations. you'll run out of processing power rather quickly I'm afraid.

Hmmm, I see what you mean granpa...now with a few steps back and some thinking - I might have been a bit ambitious. Just for the laugh: my target was/is 1 million stars.

But... I'm not going abandon this easily. Nothing easy is worth doing. Since I don't know the first thing about celestial motion, I'm going back to the basics: Newton. I'll move onto GR later. First I building I'm building a gridable physics architecture.

I have one question that may help me:
- is there a distance limit for which gravitational contribution of other stars can be ignored (stars extremely far away) ?
- if I have a cluster (I mean just a group) of stars, does all the members of the group behave in similar way, ie. can get away with applying a "pull" to the group rather consider each start individually? This will help me understand if I can grid clusters across the network.

Regards, Dan.
 
  • #5
Welcome to the forum, Dan. What you are planning to do falls in the general field of "N-Body Simulations", googling for this might yield useful info.

Also this recent review paper http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.3950 might be interesting, section 3.2 Tree Codes seems to be related to what you wrote in #4 (grouping stars to clusters).

A website from one of the authors of this paper, www.artcompsci.org contains (among other stuff related to scientific computation) some further info about N-Body Simulations.
 
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  • #6
you might consider trying to form a spiral arm of a spiral galaxy. you could limit it to 2 dimensions and you might not even require ANY interaction between the stars. you could probably do a million stars quite easily. just put them in circular orbits of all different radius's around a central mass (but with all the dark matter I'm not sure they follow an inverse square law though) then somehow put a slight mass concentration in one area (not a concentration of stars) and see if their orbits shift into that area thereby creating an even greater mass concentration.

http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast122/lectures/lec26.html
 
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1. What is the significance of studying the motion of randomly generated stars?

Studying the motion of randomly generated stars can provide valuable insights into the formation and evolution of galaxies, as well as the distribution of matter in the universe. It can also help us better understand the physical laws that govern the behavior of celestial bodies.

2. How do scientists generate random stars for these studies?

Scientists use computer simulations and models to generate random stars that mimic the characteristics and behaviors of real stars. These simulations take into account factors such as mass, velocity, and gravitational interactions to create a realistic representation of a galaxy.

3. What techniques are used to track the motion of these stars?

A variety of techniques are used to track the motion of randomly generated stars, including spectroscopy, astrometry, and photometry. These methods involve analyzing the light emitted by stars to determine their distance, velocity, and other characteristics.

4. What have scientists discovered about the motion of randomly generated stars?

Through studying the motion of randomly generated stars, scientists have discovered patterns and structures within galaxies, such as spiral arms and galactic bars. They have also found evidence for dark matter and other unseen forces that influence the motion of stars.

5. How can studying the motion of randomly generated stars benefit our understanding of the universe?

Studying the motion of randomly generated stars can help us gain a deeper understanding of the universe and its origins. By studying the behavior of stars, we can also gain insights into the formation and evolution of galaxies, as well as the larger structures and processes at work in the universe.

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