How to Build Your Own Virtual Solar System

Our solar system is not the only one.

The solar system is a very interesting scientific subject. Our solar system may seem like the only planetary system to us, but there are many different systems with differences in how many planets they contain, the size of those planets and even the size and number of stars (suns) they contain. You can build your own virtual solar system using free online tools and see how those differences might affect the different systems.

Instructions

1. Go to one of the online tools that allow you to make your own virtual solar system. Kids Astronomy, Prongo, Build Your Own Solar System and the University of Colorado at Boulder’s website are all examples of websites that offer these tools (see References).

2. Add planets to your solar system. With tools such as those offered by Kids Astronomy and Prongo, this is just a matter of selecting the planet from the list of planets available. With the tools from Build Your Own Solar System and the UC Boulder, you’ll have to select features of the planets such as name, mass, velocity, orbit and axis.

3. Create the virtual solar system. The Kids Astronomy and Prongo tools create the solar system as you select the planets; the other two tools require you to either click the “Create Solar System” button or press “Start” to watch the planets move.

4. Tweak the direction of the orbits, the mass or the velocity of the planets on the Build Your Own Solar System and UC Boulder tools to see how the differences affect the solar system. For example, if the orbit of the planet changes, the planet might crash into another planet or even into the sun.

References

• Kids Astronomy: Make a Solar System
• Prongo: Eight Planets
• Build Your Own Solar System
• University of Colorado, Boulder: My Solar System 2.02