Solar System Simulator Copyright (C) Moose O'Malley, ---------------------- January 2015. +===========================================================+ | T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S | +===========================================================+ | * Introduction | * Why I wrote this program ? | * Accuracy of the Data Presented | * Installing and Using this Program | * Uninstalling this Program | * Glossary of Terms | * Animation Speed Benchmarks | * The Future | * Special Thanks | * Reviews / Awards / CDs | * Freeware Information | * Warranty | * Amendment History | * Contacting the Program's Author +===========================================================+ Introduction : -------------- Solar System Simulator is for IBM compatible PCs, desktops, laptops, netbooks, etc running any version of Windows from Windows 95 onwards, which includes Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, etc, 32 and 64 bit. This program is free software. Anyone - any person, any company, or any business - can use this program for free. No fees or payment is required. See "Freeware Information" below. Solar System Simulator is a program to help you visualise the solar system, compare the planets, and find out more about the planets. Solar System Simulator includes : - An animation of the Solar System, with the planets rotating around the Sun. You can adjust the speed of this rotation - so that all planets move slowly, or so that some or all planets whiz around the Sun. You can reverse, forwards, pause, re-start, and reset the action at any time. You can also choose which planet to "stand on" and the perspective of the rotating planets and Sun is adjusted accordingly. And, you can also trace the orbit of each object - i.e. draw a white dot at the center of each object at each position. This is great for helping to visualize / understrand the various orbits. - 46 Planetary Comparison Graphs (with various options) to let you compare dozens of crit * Albedo [Planet's Reflectiveness] * Atmosphere - Percentage Carbon Dioxide [CO2] * Atmosphere - Percentage Helium [He] * Atmosphere - Percentage Hydrogen [H] * Atmosphere - Percentage Methane [CH4] * Atmosphere - Percentage Nitrogen [N] * Atmosphere - Percentage Oxygen [O2] * Atmosphere - Percentage Water [H2O] * Atmospheric Pressures (Millibars) * Circumferences (Km) * Density - Average (Kg/Cubic Meter, Density of Water=1027) * Discovered - Year * Distance from Earth - Closest (Millions of Km) * Distance from Earth - Furthest (Millions of Km) * Distance from Sunwards Neighbour [Closest Approach] (AU) * Distance from Sunwards Neighbour [Closest Approach] (Millions of Km) * Ellipticity [Flattening due to Rotation] * Escape Velocity (Km/Sec) * Gravity (m/sec2) * Length of a Sidereal Day (Earth Days) * Length of a Solar Day (Earth Days) * Length of Year (Earth Days) * Masses [Kg] * Moons - Number * Obliquity to Orbit [Axial Tilt] (Degrees) * Orbital Eccentricity (0 = perfectly circular orbit) * Orbital Inclination (Degrees) * Radius - Average (Km) * Radius of Oribit - Average (AU) * Radius of Oribit - Average (Millions of Km) * Radius of Oribit - Closest [Perihelion] (Millions of Km) * Radius of Oribit - Furthest [Aphelion] (Millions of Km) * Roche Limit (Km) * Size in Degrees as Seen from Earth [when Closest to Earth] * Size of Sun from Planet Surface [1.0 = size of Sun from Earth] * Solar Irradiance * Space Probe - Number Visits [so far] * Space Probe - Year First Visited * Sphere of Influence (Millions of Km) * Surface Areas (Square Km) * Temperatures Average (Degrees C) * Time for Sun-Light to Reach Planet (Hours) * Velocity Orbital (Km / Sec) * Velocity Rotational (Km / Sec) * Volume (Cubic Km) * Wind Speed [Maxium] (m/sec) You can include the Sun in these graphs if you want, or you can include or exclude the Jovian Planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), or change various other options. - You can view the actual values / numbers, or scale the values releative to Earth. This makes it easier to visualise the data. For example, instead of seeing the Planet Radius values for each planet (Earth 6,371 Km, Saturn 58,232 Km, etc) you see the sizes relative to Earth (Saturn has 9.14 Earth's radius). - Planet Statistics and information, with complete detailed reports on each planet or our Sun - including size, mass, length of day, temperature ranges, density, volume, surface area, orbital velocity, space craft visits, and many dozens of other measurements, statistics, and interesting facts. - A Weight Calculator to enable you to enter your weight and calculate your weight on each planet. - Extract Data: you can copy and paste any or all selected "extracted data" into a spreadsheet or your own reports. The data is generated in "TAB separated" format to make it easy to do these things. You can copy ALL data values for ALL planets to Windows clipboard with 3 mouse clicks !! (Simply click on the "Select All" button, "Extract Data" button, and finally the "Copy to Windows' Clipboard" button - 2 seconds is all it takes !!) - Gravity Calculator: allows you to enter the mass and volume of an object relative to Earth, and calculate the object's gravity. This works perfectly for all asteronomical objects, including stars, Neutron Stars, Black Holes, planets and moons in our solar system, and exo-planets (planets around other stars). All data (including the reports and graphs !) can be copied to Windows Clipboard at the click of a button, so that you can then paste them into your own documents and use them in your own projects / research / web pages / etc. You can generate a highly detailed report on all planets with 2 mouse clicks !! (Select "All Objects" on the "Planet Statistics" tab, and press the "Copy to Windows Clipboard" button - simple !) If you do use this information or the reports or graphs in your own own projects / research / web pages / etc, then please provide a link to my WEB page. All data has been checked against official NASA figures, see "Accuracy of the Data Presented" below. This program should be useful to anyone who wants to learn more about the Solar System. As far as I can tell, this program is unique - after carrying out extensive searching on the internet and in magazines, I can find no other program like it in the world !! (At least, this was the case when the program was developed - there are probably copy cat rip-offs out there now ... ;) Developed using 32-bit Delphi. This program will **NOT** run under Windows 3.x (even with Win32 installed). Why I wrote this program ? -------------------------------------------- I wrote this program because I have always been interested in space and space travel. This program is a program I have wanted to have for ages, but nothing quite like it exists as far as I can determine. Accuracy of the Data Presented : -------------------------------- I used many sources to obtain the data that is used in this program : - Many internet sites, especially these excellent sites : Planetary Fact Sheet - Metric http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/index.html NASA Planets and Missions information, and great fact sheets : http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planetfact.html Enchanted Learning : http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/ The Planetary Society : http://www.planetary.org/learn/solarsystem/index.html Solar Views : http://www.solarviews.com/eng/toc.htm Solar Space Station : http://www.solarspace.co.uk/index.html - Various books on space, - Planets DVDs (the awesome 6 x 1 hour BBC series), - Sam Neil's Space DVD (another awesome BBC series - this time it's 3 hours long), - Encylopeadia Britanica DVD (a real piece of crap !! - a $200 waste of money !), - And various other sources. There was, however, a lot of variation in the figures these sources presented. For example, there were variations in the figures presented for the diameters, temperatures, distances from the Sun, masses, etc for almost every planet I. I racked my brains and pulled my hair when I found such variations - and there were many dozens of such variations. However, I ended up always believing NASA's figures. Compiling this information and checking it against multiple sources to verify every single figure has been a *MAJOR* piece of work for me - requiring many long nights and weekends. When I found such variations, I made a decision to trust what looked like the most up-to-date source of information (i.e. NASA). In addition, it was also very hard to determine some values. For example, the atmospheric pressure of Jupiter, or the temperature ranges on the Jovian Planets, etc, as this information simply isn't known yet. (More Space Probes are needed !) If anyone finds any errors in any values presented in the program, then please make sure that you have the latest version of the program. (i.e. download this from my web page - see below). In addition, you should double and triple check your data against NASA Planets information fact sheets : http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planetfact.html as I assume that NASA should be the most reliable source of information. If you are using the latest version of the program, and you still believe that this has errors (i.e. discrepancies with the official NASA figures) and you are sure that your units and numbers are correct, then please email me and let me know, what values you think are wrong and why, and what the correct values should be. I will then look at things and check things out, and if I can confirm the errors, then I will fix these and prepare a new version of the program. Installing and Using this Program : ----------------------------------- To use this program, unzip the contents of the ZIP file to a directory - such as c:\Planets\ - and run the executable file : Solar_System_Simulator.EXE. You can also drag and drop shortcuts to this program onto your Desktop or Start Menu using Windows Explorer. If you want the program to run automatically when Windows starts up, then select this option under the "File" menu in the program. I hope you find the program easy to use and useful. Uninstalling this Program : --------------------------- At the present time, there is No Uninstall function. If you ever want to delete Solar System Simulator from your computer, then : 1. Exit the program, and delete it from wherever you installed it on your harddrive. Simple as that ! Glossary of Terms : ------------------- I assume that people know what radius, volume, circumference, and other basic terms mean. Here are the meanings of some of the more advanced / interesting terms. Albedo : An object's albedo is the ratio of the amount of solar radiation reflected by it to the total amount it receives. i.e. the albedo is a measure of an object's reflectiveness. An object with a high albedo is shinier than an object with a low albedo. A white, highly reflective object has an albedo of 1.0, while a black object with no reflectivity has an albedo of 0. Distance - Closest Possible Distance between Planet and Earth : For planets beyond the orbit of Earth, this is when Earth is furthest from the Sun and the planet is closest to the Sun and on the same side of the Sun as Earth. Distance - Maximum Possible Distance between Planet and Earth : When Earth is furthest from the Sun and the planet is furthest from the Sun but on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth. Ecliptic : The ecliptic is the plane of Earth's orbit about the Sun. Ellipticity : The flattening of a planet as a result of its fast rotation. Escape Velocity : Initial velocity, in Km/Sec, needed at the surface (at the 1 bar pressure level for the gas giants) to escape the body's gravitational pull forever, ignoring atmospheric drag. Obliquity to Orbit : The object's axial tilt in degrees. Orbital Eccentricity : How Elliptic the object's orbit is. 0 = perfectly circular orbit, higher values mean more elliptical orbits. Orbital Inclination : How far off the Ecliptic (i.e. the plane of the Earth's orbit of the Sun) that the planets orbits the Sun - in degrees. Roche Limit : The Roche limit is the distance from the center of a star or other object at which a large orbiting object will break up due to tidal (gravitational) forces. Large planets or moons cannot orbit within the Roche limit - because they will break up. The Roche Limit was identified and invented by Edouard Roche in 1848. Solar Day : A solar day is the amount of time that passes between two subsequent times when the Sun reaches its highest position above the horizon (passing through the meridian). The solar day varies greatly throughout the year, so the mean solar day is used instead. This is calculated as the average of all of the solar days in one year. A solar day on Earth is exactly 24 hours (since this is how we define hour, as 1/24 of a day). A solar day is slightly longer than a sidereal day. Sidereal Day (Period of Rotation) : A sidereal day is the time it takes for the Earth to rotate on its axis relative to the stars - not the sun. Because planets move in their orbits abpout the sun as they rotate, then the sidereal day is not the same as a solar day. Solar Irradiance : The amount of sun light reaching the planet. Sphere of Influence : Is the area around an object in which it's gravity is the dominant force. Animation Speed Benchmarks : ---------------------------- ************************************************** ******************* Computer : Frames / Sec (fps) ************************************************** ******************* * Desktop: Pentium II 333 MHz, 64 MB, crappy Winfast Card, 17 2.1 GB, Windows 98 * Desktop: Pentium III 700 MHz, 256 MB, crappy TNT2 M64, 92 60 GB Segate Baracuda IV, Windows XP Pro * Desktop: Pentium 4, 1.8 GHz, Windows XP Pro, 512 MB, 98 shitty Intel 82845G On-Boad Graphics, 40 GB HDD * Laptop: HP EliteBook 8570w laptop, 8 GB RAM, 330 Intel Core i7-3820QM CPU @ 2.70GHz, NVidia Quadro K1000M (2 GB), Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (purchased early-2013) * Desktop: HP Z220 Workstation, 16 GB RAM, 714 Intel Core i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz, ATI FirePro V (1 GB), Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (purchased early-2013) ************************************************** ******************* If you have a computer that is significantly different to the above, please email me and let me know your benchmark details. The Future : ------------ In the future, many improvements could be made to this program, such as : - More accurate plotting of the orbits of planets - at the moment all orbits are circular, which is perfectly acceptable - at the scale presented - for all planets except Pluto - which should have an elliptical orbit which moves the it closer to the Sun than Neptune for 20 years out of its 248.5 year orbit. - Optimise the animations - improve the speed - especially on slow machines. e.g. old laptops with crappy / slow on-board graphics. - On 21-Apr-2005, Egil Larsen requested : The only thing missing which would be fun is to be able to input a date and see the relational position of the planets for that date, but if I'm not mistaken this is way out of scope for the program. At this stage, this is a little outside the scope for the program as it stands. I will need to do a lot more research and think about things carefully (and probably buy several books) before I can work out how to do this. A few registrations will need to start coming in as well. ;) - More animation options. - More information : * Crust composition. e.g. percentage of iron, aluminium, carbon, etc. - More comparissons. - More Animations. - Sound effects. - More images of the Planets. - Frequently Asked Questions - Anything else ? If you would like any of these improvements, or would like to suggest more, please email me and let me know. How much more work I do on this program depends entirely on what support I get, how many people use the program, what kind of feedback I get, etc. Special Thanks : ---------------- - NASA for keeping the dream alive, and whose WEB site provided a wealth of information. - Calvin Hamilton and his excellent Solar Views WEB Site : http://www.solarviews.com/ Calvin gave me permission to use a bunch of images in this program, including : - The Relative Sizes of the Sun and the Planets - The Obliquity (Angle of Tilt) of the Planets - The Largest Moons and Smallest Planets - and a host of others that I may use in a future release !! Thanks Calvin !! Reviews / Awards / CDs : ------------------------ - v2.2 of this program was demonstrated and show cased on a big projection screen before current and prospective students, staff, and the general public all day during Central Queensland University's (CQUni) Open Days, in Rockhampton, Australia, in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. Freeware Information : ----------------------- This is free software. Anyone - any person, any company, or any business - can use this program for free. No fees or payment is required. However, if you find the program useful, then please consider making a PayPal donation to support my efforts. (To make a donation, please run the program and select the "About" option under the Help menu, and then click the PayPal link on the "About" screen). Warranty : ---------- This software and the accompanying files are provided "as is" and without warranties as to performance or merchantability or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. The user assumes the entire risk of using this software. If you do find any faults with this program, email me and let me know. Amendment History : ------------------- Vers Date Description 1.0 04-Oct-2002 First Public Release. (28,952 lines of code / comments.) 1.1 11-Oct-2002 Add Data Extraction functionality - so users can extract all or selected data item values for each planet. When a menu is clicked, stop the planet animation - this helps on slow PCs - e.g. Pentium 200's or less. Add in more calls to 'Application.ProcessMessages' - which helps make things smoother on older PCs - e.g. Pentium 200's or less. Reduce the size / resolution of the nebula star field picture behind the planet animation - this improves performance on slow PCs - e.g. Pentium 200's or less. This picture reduction also reduced the EXE size from 684 KB to 409 KB (a reduction 40%) with corressponding savings in the distribution ZIP file download size. Remove the Start button - it was redundant. So now there are only Forward, Reverse, Stop and Reset buttons to control the animation of the planets. Disable the "Maximize" icon - in the top right hand corner of the Title bar. (The program's window is not re-sizable). Make the program's window fit neatly on a screen with a 800 x 600 resolution or higher - any PC purchased after the early 1990's should be capable of this. Add in calculations behind the scenes for : - Orbit_Ellipse_Semi_Major_Axis_Length - Orbit_Ellipse_Semi_Minor_Axis_Length - Orbit_Ellipse_Center Click on the graph to move to the Next Graph. (29,264 lines of code / comments.) 2.0 14-Oct-2002 Add in calculations for : - Roche_Limit - Sphere_of_Influence - Length of Solar Day and add in graphs for this information, and add these to the reports for each planet. Allow the user to select the Origin - on the fly !! e.g. If you select Jupiter, then you will see what the rotation of the planets and Sun looks like from Jupiter's perspective. i.e. as if you were standing on the surface of Jupiter and looking up and watching the planets. Add in buttons to increase and decrease the speed of animation. Hand edit and improve the quality of the planet bitmaps. Generate the small planet images (used for animations) on the fly when the program starts to save holding these in the EXE - which helped reduce the EXE size slightly. Add a "Glossary of Terms" into this text file. Use a new Sun bitmap - the old one looked like a Butternut Snap - one of my favourite biscuits - and this was making me hungry !! ;) Actually, come to think of it, the new Sun looks like a pizza .... Hmmmm ... ;) (31,517 lines of code / comments.) 2.1 2-Dec-2002 Add in data, calculations, graphs, and report lines for - Distance_Closest_Possible_to_Earth - Distance_Furthest_Possible_from_Earth for each Planet. Also report the Closest, Average, and Furthest distances from the Sun (and the Closest and Furthest distances between each Planet and the Earth) in Light Hours - the number of hours it takes light to travel the distance. Use different timing loops / code during animation, and redesign the planetary animation code. The animation is now smoother on slower PCs. e.g. Pentium 100. Add the ability to trace the orbit of each object. Add File Menu options to enable the user to create or delete shortcuts to this program on the Desktop, StartMenu, etc - you can do this *ANY* time - not just when the program is being installed. (All Windows programs should provide this functionality). Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries. (50,414 lines of code / comments.) 2.2 25-Aug-2003 Add the ability to trace the orbits of selected planets and be able to change this on-the-fly. Display the Frames per Second on animation. Add in "Animation Speed Benchmarks" above. Add in additional images : - The Relative Sizes of the Sun and the Planets - The Obliquity (Angle of Tilt) of the Planets - The Largest Moons and Smallest Planets These images are used with permission of Calvin Hamilton which was received on 4-Oct-2002. Check out Calvin's excellent Solar Views WEB Site : http://www.solarviews.com/ Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries. (56,806 lines of code / comments.) 2.2f 3-Sep-2007 This program is now FREEWARE - see "Freeware Information" above. 2.3f 24-Oct-2009 The "Farewell Pluto / sorry Clive !" Release. Some usability enhancements (can use left / right arrow keys to change graphs, etc). Calculate the actual Gravity of each planet and the Sun using its mass and diameter (this data was hard-coded previously). Calculate some other values that were hard-coded. Increase Jupiter's moons to 63 (according to ABC Radio quiz), and Saturn has 61 moons, Uranus has 27 moons, and Neptune has 13. Remove Pluto as a planet. On August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted on the definition of a planet: - orbit the sun and not another planet - be massive enough to be spherical - have cleared its orbit of debris Pluto met the first 2 criteria but not the 3rd. Since part of Pluto's orbit is in the Kuiper Belt, its orbit is not cleared of debris. Pluto is now officially known as a "dawrf planet", and also sometimes called a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO). Poor Clyde Tombaugh (the discoverer of Pluto) will be spinning in his grave. At least they waited until after poor Clyde had passed away. The decision still affected his family however, read this article: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1724550.htm For over 3 years, I have resisted removing Pluto from my Solar System Simulator because I kept hoping the IAU would reverse their decision. Sadly not. I have made it so ALL of Pluto data is still there, and that it can easily be reinstated as a planet if this decision about Pluto changes in the future. (Not holding my breath ...) Reduce the default "Speed" of animation (the slider at the bottom). Change the default of "Trace Orbits of Objects" to checked for all objects. Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries. (55,869 lines of code / comments.) 3.0f 13-Jan-2015 Lots of changes for this release. :) Add the ability to scale all graph values relative to Earth. This makes it easier to visualise the data. For example, instead of seeing the Planet Radius values for each planet (Earth 6,371 Km, Saturn 58,232 Km, etc) you see the sizes relative to Earth (Saturn has 9.14 Earth's radius). Add "First Graph" and "Last Graph" buttons so you can quickly navigate around the graphs. Remove "Registered Version" message on the "Data Extraction" tab. Replace images on "Sizes and Tilts" and "Moons and Dwarf Planets" tabs with higher resolution images. This makes the EXE slightly larger. Update details for Pluto (add 4 newly discovered moons, etc). Although Pluto isn't "visible" in any of my program's graphs, etc, it is still there behind the scenes. Fix an issue with this program running under 64 bit versions of Windows Vista, 7, 8, etc. (Auto-run at Windows startup). Fix the solar system / planetary animation under 64 bit versions of Windows: the problem was that the planets were NOT visible in the animation. It turns out that this problem was caused by an AutoSize parameter for TImage components being handled differently under 64 bit versions of Windows: * For 32 bit versions of Windows, if an image is copied to a blank TImage component with a specific size, then the size of the TImage does NOT change, even if it's AutoSize property is set to True. * For 64 bit versions of Windows, the TImage size will be set to 0, and 0 pixels are copied, and this is why the planets were not showing up. So, the behaviour of the TImage component completely changes depending on which version of Windows you are using. I could NOT find any reference to this anywhere on the internet. Very STRANGE and completely undocumented behaviour. The fix for this was *very* simple: set AutoSize to false for each of the planet TImages, and everything worked perfectly again. :) Fix a form sizing and scaling issue under 64 bit versions of Windows Vista, 7, 8, etc - where the behaviour is, once again, completley different to 32 bit versions of Windows. Thank you Microsoft - NOT ! - for continuing the to break and change things behind the scenes in Windows in completely unexpected ways ! Add a Gravity Calculator to the new "Gravity" tab which allows you to enter the mass and volume of an object relative to Earth or the Sun, and calculate the object's gravity. This works perfectly for all asteronomical objects, including stars, Neotron Stars, Black Holes, planets and moons in our solar system, and exo-planets (planets around other stars). I added this functionality because I was reading some articles about exoplanets today, such as "HD 40307g". The articles said this exoplanet had "eight times the mass of Earth and twice the volume" and that its "gravity will be a real killer for any human visitors". None of the articles mentioned what the gravity was. How strong was its gravity ? Would it really kill humans ? I decided to work out the answers to these questions. So, I added the "Gravity" tab to my Solar System Simulator, added the required calculations, and within a minute or 2 I had my answers: HD 40307g's Gravity = 49.50 m/sec^2, which is 5.04x Earth`s Gravity. Now, this is strong gravity. However, I have experienced more than 6 G for short periods (5-10 seconds or so at a time, but it felt like hours ! ;) in an old Russian Mig fighter jet and 5+G is not particularly comfortable, but it certainly wont kill you. The author's claims of it being a "real killer for any human visitors" are clearly exaggerated. And who knows, eventually humans might learn / adapt to live under such strong gravity ? Add "Animation Speed Benchmarks" for my most recently purchased computers: * Laptop: HP EliteBook (purchased early-2013) * Desktop: HP Z220 Workstation (purchased mid-2013) Add exception handling to the loading and saving of program settings (INI file) so that the program executes and exits cleanly (no error messages produced) even if running from a read-only device such as a optical disk (CD-ROM, etc) or there are disk errors or the disk is full and/or the INI file does not exist and/or it cannot be created. Explore using a Frame Skip method for the planetary animations in the Solar System Simulator tab, but this did not work as well as the currently implemented "Time Increment" method that I have been using all along. I will explore this further though. Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries. (4,350 lines of code / comments / blank lines in primary source file.) (68,777 lines of code / comments / blank lines in all primary, library, and include files.) If this program was not downloaded from my Home Page, then it is possibly an old version. The latest version of this program is available from my WEB page - see below. Mike "Moose" O'Malley ____________________________________________________ Moose's Software Valley - Established July, 1996. WEB: http://moosevalley.fhost.com.au/ ____________________________________________________