Data

The figure above shows how the length of stable orbit varies for planet B in the HR8799 solar system as the mass of the planet and the starting position are varied as a multiple of their 'best estimate' values.

Aliens - interactive

Abstract: Intelligent life takes around 1 billion years to form and requires stable temperatures that allow liquid water. The HR8799 system has four planets that could potentially harbour life if these conditions are met. Simulating these planets over long time periods (one thousand to one billion years) reveals how long the planets’ current orbits are likely to stay stable. Varying the initial mass and starting positions of these planets can affect how long their orbits are stable. For example, scaling the mass down to x0.2 and the initial distance up to x15 extends the stable orbit from 3000 years to 1.2x10^8 years.

Download the final report here: report.pdf

Mass Scalar values:

X_= [0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]

True Anomaly Scalar values:

Y_ = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14]

Simulated stable orbit time for Planet b:

Z_b = [1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 192, 269, 1000, 1000, 39, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 562, 228, 263, 585, 579, 575, 572, 569, 567, 129, 565, 1000, 1000, 1000, 658, 669, 675, 676, 677, 677, 677, 677, 677, 677, 677, 1000, 1000, 1000, 687, 698, 60, 703, 703, 703, 703, 702, 702, 702, 702, 1000, 1000, 1000, 670, 652, 669, 1000, 682, 685, 686, 687, 687, 688, 688, 1000, 1000, 1000, 666, 683, 702, 707, 1000, 399, 255, 484, 490, 43, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 707, 687, 1000, 1000, 7, 58, 5, 18, 421, 427, 431, 1000, 1000, 723, 360, 1000, 1000, 763, 259, 284, 611, 1000, 612, 1000, 15]

Simulated stable orbit time for Planet c:

Z_c = [1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 283, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 893, 893, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 119, 408, 1000, 1000, 1000, 748, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 175, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 651, 651, 651, 651, 651, 104, 651, 1000, 1000, 280, 1000, 268, 349, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 9, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 399, 1000, 412, 1000, 1000, 424, 292, 341, 18, 312, 262, 600, 600, 406, 1000, 1000, 399, 1000, 1000, 1000, 323, 282, 91, 1000, 1000, 1000, 135, 1000, 707, 791, 304, 498, 12, 334, 301, 1000, 206, 83, 398, 195, 397, 202]

Simulated stable orbit time for Planet d:

Z_d = [1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 134, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 180, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 716, 1000, 740, 732, 85, 73, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 310, 586, 585, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 74, 1000, 1000, 149, 1000, 453, 443, 104, 1000, 1000, 1000, 968, 968, 968, 968, 968, 968, 444, 276, 899, 444, 899, 899, 899, 400, 292, 160, 1000, 306, 167, 65, 507, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 407, 1000, 2, 127, 1000, 1000, 279, 37, 206, 189, 428, 17, 462, 463, 1000, 341, 54, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 596, 7, 1000, 572, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000]

Simulated stable orbit time for Planet e:

Z_e = [1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 134, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 179, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 583, 651, 651, 651, 1000, 1000, 1000, 650, 650, 650, 650, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 395, 1000, 1000, 230, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 509, 1000, 311, 573, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 317, 1000, 767, 707, 11, 1000, 167, 321, 12, 487, 226, 13, 1000, 641]