The basic behaviour of stars in a galaxy is for them to orbit around the centre according to the laws of physics. The most relevant equations are

gravitational force = GMm / r^2

F = ma

and a = rw^2

Combining these gives

GMm /r^2 = mrw^2

or

w^2 = GM/r^3

w = angular velocity around centre
G = gravitational constant
M = mass of galaxy/galactic centre
r = distance from centre

This mans that the closer the star is to the centre the faster it rotates, like the orbits of the planests in our solar system. And this explains the spiral structure.

Our galaxy may have started out very uniform. But something happened to knock holes in it, possibiy a collision with another galaxy or with black holes. Then over time as the galaxy rotatated these holes and the arms between them were wrapped around the centre as the stars near the centre wound around the centre more quickly.

Try out this:

rotation_angle = sqrt(x²+y²)*180/radius_of_galaxy;

new_x = sqrt(x²+y²)*cos(rotation_angle+arctan(y/x));
new_y = sqrt(x²+y²)*sin(rotation_angle+arctan(y/x));

This should do it...
if it doesn''t try using PI (3,141592...) instead of 180 when calculating the rotation angle (most math-libs work with radians instead of degrees).

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"To a computer, chaos is just another kind of order."

Just adding the standard (matrix) way to rotate a point/vector around the z-axis:

  original position  = x, y, zrotated position   = u, v, wangle to rotate by = au = x*cos(a) - y*sin(a)v = x*sin(a) + y*cos(a)w = z  

Ill explain it more throughoutly if needed, just ask..

JT

In reality, a galaxy spins faster the nearer you are to the center, not the farther you are.

    pi = 3.14159...  d = sqr(x * x + y * y);  a = kappa * pi / radius * (radius - d);  a = a * a / pi * pi;  nx = x * cos(a) - y * sin(a);  y = y * cos(a) + x * sin(a);  x = nx;  

In this sample, ''kappa'' is a value that defines the speed of rotation of the galaxy. In my tests, a value of 0.3 was about right, but you will need to adjust this depending upon how fast you want your galaxy to be, and how fast it runs. (I tested the algorithm on VisualBasic, it''ll probably run much faster on C.)

After we''ve calculated the angle, we adjust to an exponential scale. Slow angles get slower, and fast angles get faster. Hopefully, this will convincingly simulate what would be happening if gravity was really in charge.

I''d recommend using gravity to make it totally realistic. It''s probably faster than calculating rotations, and isn''t notably harder to understand.

PS. I read the other day that our galaxy is colliding with another one, right now. (Although, when I say, right now, I actually mean several million years ago.) Fortunately for us, it''s much smaller than ours.

Signatures? We don''t need no steenking signatures!

So galaxies aren't subject to the law of gravity? I find that somewhat hard to believe. Could you provide a link to more info on this?

Signatures? We don't need no steenking signatures!

Edit: Momentarily forgot how to write English.

Edited by - Mayrel on October 31, 2001 11:17:58 AM

My astronomy is a bit rusty. I did take an astronomy course in college back in, I think, 1988. Buster isn''t quite correct in saying stars in galaxies spin at the same speed regardless of distance. But he''s not totally wrong either, thanks to the mystical "dark matter". Their speed is related to the conservation of angular momentum. And as Mayrel reminds us, they are subject to gravity. Keep in mind that galaxies are enormous. The gravitational acceleration, due to the vast distribution of mass in a galaxy, varies in a way that is different from a few lightweight bodies around a concentrated central mass such as planets around a single star. Here''s a good page that discusses galactic rotation curves:

http://cfpa.berkeley.edu/darkmat/galrotcurve.html

Dark matter seems to play a major role. This page:

http://www.sciam.com/askexpert/physics/physics43/physics43.html

To quote: "Looking at the rotation curves of galaxies, however, astronomers have found that rotational speeds do not fall off with distance as expected. Instead, the curves level off, and stars far away from the center of the galaxy move faster than expected."

sort of backs up Buster''s statement about speed-----for stars far away from the center but not near the center.

Graham Rhodes
Senior Scientist
Applied Research Associates, Inc.