An N-body simulation of the solar system and the ephemeris of the planets

Abstract

The N-Body problem is the prediction of the motion of N particles under the influence of the mutual gravitational attraction between each other. The related planetary motion is attributed to the forces exerted by every other object in the problem. Applying Newtonian physics to the problem determines the change in velocity and the new position of the celestial object. This project covers the use of particle-particle algorithms to solve the N-body simulation of multiple objects. Though the project is highly oriented towards the simulation of the orbits of the planets in the solar system and their respective satellites, it also gives a view of other N particle simulations. Another section compares algorithms and their computation speeds as the number of bodies increase in quantity. As an auxiliary part of the project, an Ephemeris side project has been included to predict the position of the planets at a given date within an epoch. Planetary charts complement this section to serve as an aid to localize planets in the night sky