PREVIOUS WORK ON DYNAMICS OF THE JOVIAN SYSTEM
The study of planetesimal dynamics is just one of many fields reaping the rewards of increasingly powerful computing platforms and software simulation techniques. While observational data continues to grow and increase in complexity, it is a constant challenge to develop equivalently advanced computational methods. The information presented here is the result of research in simulating Galilean satellite formation, coducted during the Summer of 2000 at the University of Washington's Astronomy Department. Everything you find here is merely a small addition to work done by researchers in the N-Body Shop, and that of many others.
Links to abstracts and summaries of previous research are provided in the "Links" section. We would like to especially acknowledge the invaluable mentorship of Derek C. Richardson and Tom Quinn - this project is an offshoot of their research in n-body solar system dynamics. For those seeking a more professional treatment of the subject, the paper published by these two authors, "Direct Large-Scale N-body Simulations of Planetesimal Dynamics", provides a detailed section on the formation of the Galilean satellites.