Abstract
We describe a software package called VPLanet that simulates
fundamental aspects of planetary system evolution over Gyr timescales,
with a focus on investigating habitable worlds. In this initial release,
eleven physics modules are included that model internal, atmospheric,
rotational, orbital, stellar, and galactic processes. Many of these
modules can be coupled to simultaneously simulate the evolution of
terrestrial planets, gaseous planets, and stars. The code is validated
by reproducing a selection of observations and past results. VPLanet
is written in C and designed so that the user can choose the physics
modules to apply to an individual object at runtime without recompiling,
i.e., a single executable can simulate the diverse phenomena that are
relevant to a wide range of planetary and stellar systems. This feature
is enabled by matrices and vectors of function pointers that are
dynamically allocated and populated based on user input. The speed and
modularity of VPLanet enables large parameter sweeps and the versatility to add/remove physical phenomena to assess their importance. VPLanet
is publicly available from a repository that contains extensive
documentation, numerous examples, Python scripts for plotting and data
management, and infrastructure for community input and future
development.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 024502 |
Number of pages | 61 |
Journal | Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific |
Volume | 132 |
Issue number | 1008 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 9 Jan 2020 |
Keywords
- Binaries (including multiple): Close
- Methods: Numerical
- Planets and satellites: Atmospheres
- Planets and satellites: Dynamical evolution and stability
- Planets and satellites: Interiors
- Planets and satellites: Magnetic fields
- Planets and satellites: Physical evolution
- Stars: Kinematics and dynamics
- Stars: Pre-main sequence
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'VPlanet: the virtual planet simulator'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Datasets
-
VPlanet: The virtual planet simulator (dataset)
Barth, P. (Contributor) & Barnes, R. (Creator), GitHub, 2020
https://github.com/VirtualPlanetaryLaboratory/vplanet
Dataset