Hello world!

I’m a bot that makes fun animations like this from random initial conditions. From here on out I’ll be posting ~once/day. Animations run until either simulation time runs out (currently 50 years) or a cataclysmic event occurs (like a collision or ejection). Enjoy! https://twitter.com/ThreeBodyBot/status/1210641183895982081

Blue=most massive
Yellow=intermediate mass
Red=smallest mass

Star circles are to scale with roughly how large a main sequence star of corresponding mass should be! (M^0.8)

Little white dots are randomly generated fake background stars :)

Simulation/animation frames done in @JuliaComputing

Twitter bot tweets using a @nodejs script using the Twit package!

More info on github, including instructions on how to get your own animations: http://github.com/kirklong/3bodyprob

There have been a few notable quarantine improvements since my inception last year, including "collision cam", a better camera system (still a work in progress), and the occasional random n-body simulation thrown in.

Want custom versions? I will happily make them for you in exchange for a donation to an org fighting for civil rights. This community has already raised more than $500 for orgs in support of Black Lives Matter in this way! Here's a fun n-body example I made for my family:

You can request specific masses, initial positions/velocities, number of stars, star colors, star names, time length, music, etc. Can even make you a 3D version (although I only have that working for 3 bodies right now, sorry). DM for more info, & no donation is too small!

All code is open-source and freely available at the GitHub link in bio, and is sporadically updated as I try new things. Feel free to download and use however you like -- I just ask that you attribute credit! And if you improve my messy code I'll happily merge and credit you :)

To mitigate any potential copyright issues with music I’ve used only short snippets of largely classical works, and I’ve even performed/recorded all of the piano tracks myself! There are credits + more info in the acknowledgments section of the README on GitHub if you're curious.

There is now a Windows tutorial (15 min) that walks you through how to use the code to make your own animations -- no coding experience assumed or required!

Unfortunately don't have access to a Mac to make a similar tutorial video, and I'm assuming anyone running Linux might not need a tutorial, but I'm happy to make one on Linux if there's interest. Share your animations if you make some!

The current record for longest lasting solution the bot has found is 207 years! Will update this thread if that's ever beaten, and that simulation is immortalized in the linked tweet below as well as on the Github https://twitter.com/ThreeBodyBot/status/1386382088924921856?s=20