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Rogue Star
Help File

General Information

  • HELP. Displays this help screen. To exit, click one of the Exit Help buttons located at the top and bottom of this screen.

    Initial Conditions

  • START DATE. Here you specify the date that you want to start the simulation, in MM/DD/YYYY format.

  • SHOW INNER/OUTER PLANETS. This is a pull down menu where you can pick which set of planets you want to view for the simulation. This also restricts the CLOSE APPROACH DISTANCE that you must fill in later in the form.

  • STAR MASS. This is where you specify the mass of the rogue star, in Solar Masses. So, for example, if you wanted to send a star that was half as massive as the Sun in the inner Solar System, you would put .5 in for the Star Mass.

  • CLOSE APPROACH DISTANCE. This is where you specify how close the rogue star comes to the Sun. This is measured in Astronomical Units (AU). 1 AU is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun. If you are looking at the inner Solar System, then you can not have a Close Approach Distance bigger than 7 AU. The star would never come on the screen. If you are looking at the outer Solar System, then you can not have a Close Approach Distance bigger than 50 AU, for the same reason.

  • FLYBY SPEED. This is how fast the rogue star is going as it comes close to the Sun. A slow rogue star would travel in a rounded orbit, whereas a fast rogue star would travel close to a straight line by the Sun.

  • SUBMIT FORM. Get ready to see a nifty animation!

  • LOAD DEFAULTS. Set all parameters back to their default values.

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