Generation algorithm

neopeius

Forgive me if this has been explained in detail before (and if so, if you could point me to where...)

How do you generate planets? There are now lots of real solar systems to use for data (a luxury we didn't have when we wrote such programs back in the early 90s!). Does your program match real data on a statistical level? Can we generate hot Jupiters? Etc.

Thanks for a great product!

Gideon

Ed_NBOS

If you're asking what algorithm the program itself uses to generate planets, its not quite that simple. There's dozens of algorithms in use. There's a section in the help file that describes the extent of what the generator is doing. Though the actual implementations arent something I'd publish.

Hot jupiters can be and are created by the generator. As are water worlds, which much to my suprise, were generated by the atm reducing algorithms without specific support for them.

For the most part real-universe boundaries are in use, though they may be tweaked a bit for AS3 based on newer info.

neopeius

Thanks for the answer. I just got the University of Arizona's book "Exoplanets" and it has a fine article on the statistical distribution of planetary systems (based on spectral type, Fe/H, etc.) It would be worth picking up just to make sure your model generates something close to reality.

Of course, it appears that planetary systems aren't all that common (10% on average), but then we only can see the big planets...