← All n-Body Animations


Overview: This app simulates a star, a planet, and lots of massless dust. The default parameters match those of the Sun and Jupiter (so an orbit takes 12 years and is slightly eccentric). Initially, the dust is uniformly distributed in a circle around the star at the same radius as the initial radius of the planet. Each dust particle gets a tiny random out-of-plane displacement to make this a truly 3‑D simulation. Let it run for a few minutes and you should see accumulation near the L4 and L5 points (60° ahead/behind the planet).

Controlling the Simulation:

Here's how it looks after 50,000 years...