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Kepler solar system explorer

A central mass at the origin, four inner Solar System planets at their real semi-major axes and eccentricities (Mercury through Mars), plus a fifth user- controllable test orbit. All five bodies obey the same inverse-square law in $GM = 1$ units where $a = 1$ corresponds to Earth's orbit (1 yr). The inset shows Kepler's third law: every body lands on the dashed $\log(T^2) = \log(a^3)$ line, regardless of eccentricity. Adjust the test orbit's $(a, e)$ and time-speed; the test point's location on the inset moves with the slider.

Figure 1. Inner Solar System (Mercury through Mars at their real (a, e)) plus a user- controlled test orbit. Method: 2D velocity-Verlet on the inverse-square force from shared/js/engine/symplectic.js; ten conservation laws hold per body (energy, angular momentum, Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector).
test a (AU) 1.80
test e 0.45
speed (yr/s) 0.3

WHAT TO TRY

  • Vary each control and watch the rail readouts respond.
  • Compare the diagnostic plot against the live scene.