AstroGrav

Software Screenshot:
AstroGrav
Software Details:
Version: 4.1.1 updated
Upload Date: 3 May 20
Distribution Type: Shareware
Price: 59.00 $
Downloads: 399
Size: 24392 Kb

Rating: 2.3/5 (Total Votes: 7)

AstroGrav is a full-featured, high precision solar system simulator that calculates the gravitational interactions between all astronomical bodies, so that the motions of asteroids and comets are simulated much more accurately than with planetarium applications. The effects of general relativity and radiation pressure can be taken into account, and superb interactive 3D viewing allows you to easily rotate and zoom your view while the solar system evolves.

The AstroGrav software has a huge range of features and viewing options, including views from space or any object, planetarium-style views from any location on Earth, multiple views animated simultaneously, dynamically calculated orbits and trajectories, comprehensive tabular data, and simulation time steps from a fraction of a second to thousands of years. Constellations and over 100,000 background stars are included, with comprehensive data for every star. Several different celestial coordinate grids and a wide range of physical units are available, and editing facilities allow you to create new objects manually, or import from hundreds of thousands of asteroids and comets.

Because it calculates the motions of bodies from their gravitational interactions, AstroGrav is not restricted to just the solar system. Any situation in which gravity is the only significant force can be simulated, and the illustrative sample files that are included with AstroGrav include many examples such as exoplanet systems, protoplanets that evolve into planetary systems, rubble piles and their interactions with massive bodies, complex star systems, and even projectiles and bouncing balls. AstroGrav is ideal for astronomers, astrophysicists, researchers, teachers, educationalists, and students, and comes complete with a tutorial and full documentation.

What is new in this release:

Version 4.1.1:

  • Changed the way that smaller bodies reflect light so as to better simulate the opposition surge effect.

What is new in version 3.7:

Version 3.7:

  • Enhanced the 'Evolve / Evolve To...' command to allow evolution to perihelia, aphelia, and ascending / descending nodes in solar system simulations.
  • Significantly improved both the accuracy and speed of evolution.
  • Added the new 'File / Import...' and 'File / Export...' commands.
  • Added 'Open...' and 'Save As...' buttons to the preferences dialog so that preferences can easily be backed up or copied from one computer to another.
  • Moved custom locations from the bottom to the top of the list of locations.
  • Greatly reduced the inaccuracies when converting between rectangular and orbital elements.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.6:

Version 3.6:

  • Enhanced the 'Evolve / Evolve To...' command to allow evolution to oppositions, conjunctions, quadratures, transits, and minimum / maximum elongations and distances in solar system simulations.
  • Corrected a fault that caused the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center import tables to appear empty in the 'Edit / Import Objects...' command.
  • Added the new 'Help / AstroGrav Facebook' command.
  • Added the new 'Help / Email Support' command.
  • Improved the 'Tools / Create Movie...' command to show hundredths of a second in the display of the movie time.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.5.1:

Version 3.5.1:

  • Corrected a fault that could cause the evolution algorithm to misbehave in some simulations.
  • Corrected a fault that could cause the 'Evolve / Evolve To...' command to use one more time step than expected.
  • Changed the names of the background stars in solar system simulations to conform to the IAU Stellar Name Catalogue.
  • Displayed only first magnitude background star names in upper case in solar system simulations.
  • Eliminated some rounding errors.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.4.3:

  • Corrected a serious fault that prevented the 'Edit / Import Objects...' command from working with the JPL options.
  • Made minor improvements to the evolution algorithm.
  • Increased the number of items in the list of recently used simulations from 10 to 20.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.4.2:

  • Corrected a serious fault that could cause AstroGrav to freeze during startup, making it unusable.
  • Corrected a fault that caused clicking on a table header for sorting to sometimes be ignored.
  • Corrected a fault that caused evolution calculations to continue after using the 'Evolve/Stop' command, leading to potential future problems.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.4.1:

Version 3.4.1:

  • Corrected a fault that caused the JPL asteroid and comet import tables to appear empty in the 'Edit / Import Objects...' command.
  • Improved the display of celestial grids so that they are displayed correctly at very high magnifications.
  • Made searching on background stars faster and much more flexible.
  • Made many improvements to the information displayed on object windows.
  • Added the 'lunar distances' and 'modified julian days' units.
  • Allowed an object's editor to be opened by double-clicking on the object with the 'Alt' key depressed.
  • Made significant improvements to evolution performance.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.4:

Version 3.4:

  • Greatly expanded the choice of object types from 8 to about 50, with the inclusion of many useful subtypes.
  • Added 'View / Show All / Angles...' and 'View / Show Selected / Angles...' commands to display the angles between pairs of objects.
  • Added a 'Window / Export...' command to export a text representation of the active window's contents that is ideal for use in a text editor, word processor, or spreadsheet application.
  • Made several significant enhancements to the generation of ephemerides in solar system simulations using the 'Tools / Generate Ephemeris...' command.
  • Redesigned object windows, with the inclusion of three different sets of celestial coordinates - ecliptic, equatorial, and horizontal.
  • Made several improvements to the information that is displayed when double-clicking on a background star in a solar system simulation, including the addition of celestial coordinates and continuous updating of data during evolution.
  • Made several improvements to the sample simulations.

What is new in version 3.3.3:

Version 3.3.3:

  • Improved the 'Edit / Import Objects...' command to allow the filtering of asteroid and comet tables to show just the ones that were discovered in a particular year.
  • Improved the 'View / Show All / MOIDs...' and 'View / Show Selected / MOIDs...' commands to include parabolic, hyperbolic, and anti-hyperbolic orbits, as well as orbits that don't share a common focus.
  • Added the 'jupiter masses' and 'jupiter radii' units.
  • Improved the accuracy of ephemeris table calculations with 'Light-Time Correction' in the 'Tools / Generate Ephemeris...' command.
  • Made evolution with general relativity slightly more accurate and slightly faster.
  • Made many improvements to the sample simulations.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.3.2:

Version 3.3.2:

  • Added a choice of units to the 'Edit / Date/Time...' and 'Evolve / Evolve To...' commands.
  • Made improvements to the 'Edit / Import Objects...' command.
  • Improved the ordering of files in the 'File / Open Recent...' menu.
  • Corrected faults that could cause the incorrect calculation of distances between objects and minimum orbit intersection distances (MOIDs) between orbits.
  • Modified commands to allow luminosities to be editable with all types of particles.
  • Improved the drawing of trajectories to avoid drawing unwanted cusps at sharp turns in the trajectories.
  • Corrected a fault that could cause the 'Evolve / Evolve To...' command to evolve to the wrong time when using the fractional days unit.

What is new in version 3.3.1:

Version 3.3.1:

  • Added an 'Export' button and a 'Help' button to all tables.
  • Increased the number of lines in table headers from two to three, so that the displayed text doesn't have to be abbreviated as much as before.
  • Added the phase of the target object to the default set of table columns that are displayed with the 'Tools / Generate Ephemeris...' command.
  • Added keyboard shortcuts to 25 of the commands that didn't previously have keyboard shortcuts, making the use of AstroGrav more efficient for expert users.
  • Increased the absolute magnitude of the 'JPL Comets' from 10.0 to 12.0 in the 'Edit / Import Objects...' command.
  • Used more accurate values of the color, radius, and mass of the New Horizons spacecraft in the 'New Horizons' sample simulation.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.2.1:

  • Enhanced the 'Edit / Find...' command to allow searching for background stars and constellations in solar system view windows.
  • Corrected a fault that made a view window unusable when a found object was already positioned at the exact center of the window.
  • Greatly improved the error messages that are displayed when attempting to read or write data without the appropriate read/write permissions.
  • Modified many of the dialog windows to give them an improved and consistent appearance.
  • Significantly improved the documentation for several commands.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.2:

Version 3.2:

  • Greatly improved the accuracy of solar system evolution when dealing with close encounters between objects.
  • Added to the 'Evolve / Evolve To...' command a choice between animated and non-animated evolution.
  • Added an option to take into account the effect of radiation pressure during simulation evolution.
  • Made the 'Edit / Import Objects...' command faster, more accurate, and easier to use.
  • Added an option to quickly evolve a newly opened solar system simulation to the present time.
  • Made several improvements to the sample simulations.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.1:

Version 3.1:

  • Added the new 'Tools / Reference Frame...' command, which changes the reference frame so that the barycenter is stationary, at the origin, or both.
  • Added the new 'Tools / Take Snapshot...' command, which takes a snapshot of the current display.
  • Added the new 'Tools / Create Movie...' command, which creates a movie of a simulation while it is evolving.
  • Added the new 'Tools / Generate Ephemeris...' command, which generates an ephemeris for any object in a solar system simulation while it is evolving.
  • Made the New Horizons sample simulation much more accurate.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.0.6:

Version 3.0.6:

  • Greatly speeded up evolution in cases where small time steps are being used.
  • Improved evolution performance in most simulations.
  • Corrected a fault that caused AstroGrav to crash when evolving a large number of overlapping objects with bouncing collisions.
  • Made several other minor improvements to the handling of bouncing collisions.
  • Corrected a fault that caused an unwanted automatic change to the fixed point after accepting a 'Do you want to detach your viewpoint?' question in a view window.
  • Corrected a memory leak that could cause AstroGrav to run short of memory after starting and stopping evolution a very large number of times.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.0.5:

Version 3.0.5:

  • Made the evolution algorithm much more accurate in situations (such as exoplanet simulations) where there is a dominant object.
  • Speeded up evolution in many simulations, particularly those involving collisions.
  • Improved the solar system sample simulations to have more accurate masses for the main solar system objects.
  • Made the keyboard entry of dates and times in the 'Edit / Date/Time...' and 'Evolve / Evolve To...' commands more flexible and less insistent on a particular format.
  • Corrected a fault that caused an unwanted 'null' entry in the undo/redo chain when evolution was stopped before anything had changed.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.0.4:

Version 3.0.4:

  • Added help buttons to the dialog windows of the more complex commands.
  • Added the 'View / Selections...' command to allow a choice of different behaviours when objects are selected.
  • Added the time zone or time unit to the dates and times shown on status bars.
  • Improved the 'Edit / Import Objects...' command so that the small body type and 'Fast import without evolution' setting are automatically saved and restored.
  • In the 'Edit / Import Objects...' command, moved the 'Fast import without evolution' checkbox to the following dialog window, where it is more useful.
  • Fixed a memory leak that could cause AstroGrav to run short of memory when large numbers of windows were opened and closed in a simulation.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.0.3:

Version 3.0.3:

  • Made several improvements to the editing features that simplify editing in complex situations.
  • Changed the value used for the astronomical unit from 149597870691.0 meters to 149597870700.0 meters.
  • Corrected a fault that could prevent a simulation from evolving when collisions were not being ignored.
  • Corrected a fault that could cause a simulation to evolve differently depending on the collisions setting, even when no collisions actually occurred.
  • Added a color randomizer to the 'Edit / Split Object...' command so that the individual objects in a rubble pile can be easily distinguished.
  • Enhanced the 'File / Import.html...' command so that it automatically strips out Excel's surrounding double quotes when attempting to parse numbers.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.0.2:

Version 3.0.2:

  • Added the 'Edit / Split Object...' command to allow the easy conversion of an asteroid, comet, or other object into a rubble pile.
  • Greatly improved the performance when evolving simulations that contain rubble piles.
  • Changed the start date of the Solar System sample simulations to 01/01/2015.
  • Changed the names of comets in the Solar System sample simulations to the standard form that is used in the comet import ('Edit / Import Objects...') command.
  • Added comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) to the Solar System sample simulations.
  • Improved the choice of mnemonics used for the items in the Edit menu.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.0.1:

Version 3.0.1:

  • Corrected a fault that could prevent a simulation from evolving when a comet or asteroid was being simulated as a rubble pile.
  • Improved the toolbar overflow menu so that it stays displayed until manually hidden with a second click.
  • Improved the toolbar overflow menu so that it responds correctly to the resizing of its containing window.
  • Corrected a fault that caused a toolbar overflow menu to fail to move around with its containing window.
  • Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

Limitations:

15-day trial

Supported Operation Systems

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