Solar System Orbits with the Dwarf Planets
compiled by Phillip Dukes
Download Solar System Orbits with the Dwarf Planets with Partiview and related data filesOn 24 August 2006, the International
Astronomical Union resolved that the Solar System consists of eight
"planets": Mercury, Venus,
Earth,
Mars,
Jupiter,
Saturn,
Uranus,
and Neptune. A new distinct class of objects called "dwarf planets"
was also decided. It was agreed that "planets" and "dwarf planets" are
two distinct classes of objects. Members of this "dwarf planet" category
include the former asteriod Ceres,
Pluto, and 2003 UB313
(was commonly called Xena) now officially designated Eris
since 13 September 2006.
The program Solar Syatem Orbits depicts the relative shapes, sizes
and orientations of the orbits of the eight classical planets, and the
3 newly classified dwarf planets in our Solar System. The oribital parameters
for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and
Pluto come from http://learning.nd.edu/orbital/original/.
The orbital parameters for Ceres come from http://learning.nd.edu/orbital/.
The latest known orbital parameters for Xena come from http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/mpec/K05/K05O41.html.
PC Instructions: Click on SolarSystemOrbits.bat to start the program on a regular single screen, or on SolarSystemOrbits_geowall.bat to start the program on a GeoWall system. You can control which objects turn on at startup by editing the .cf files; at present all objects are turned on.
Linux Instructions: make sure the CSH files are executable ("chmod +x blah.csh") then type "./blah.csh" from the Linux prompt where the Windows instructions say "click on blah.bat".
Navigation Instructions
The trick to navigation is to press a mouse button down, move the mouse, and release the mouse button. Navigation is inertia-based, so whatever you were doing when the mouse button is released continue to happens.- Rotation : left click & hold.
- Zooming: Right click (and hold!) the mouse and move up and down. (If you have a Mac with a one-button mouse, press the option key as you click that button.)
- Stopping motion: click once with the mouse. Don't move the mouse while the mouse button is down.
- Quit: press escape.