AstroGrav

What is new in this release:

• Corrected a serious fault that made it impossible to use the optional faint star files with the more recent versions of Mac OS X.
• Corrected a fault that made the offline help inaccessible.
• Changed the way that smaller bodies reflect light so as to better simulate the opposition surge effect.
• Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in 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:

• 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:

• 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:

• 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:

• 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.
• Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in 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.
• Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in 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:

• 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 3.1.1:

• Corrected a fault that caused the 'Evolve / Evolve To...' and 'Edit / Date/Time...' commands to fail for users in the western hemisphere (the Americas) when specifying a date.
• Transferred the 'Edit / Locations...' command to the 'Tools / Edit Locations...' command.
• Corrected a fault that caused accented characters to be incorrectly displayed in locations, both in lists of locations and on status bars.
• Corrected a fault that prevented the display of the 'document modified' indicator on a Mac window's red traffic light.
• Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in 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.
• Modified the Mac version so that it no longer requires an installation of Java.
• Made the New Horizons sample simulation much more accurate.
• Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in 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:

• 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 3.0.3:

• 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:

• 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.
• Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

What is new in version 3.0.1:

• Corrected a fault that prevented licenses from being registered on Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks).
• 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.

Requirements:

Java

Limitations:

15-day trial