An introduction to the laws of celestial mechanics and a step-by-step guide to developing software for direct use in astrophysics research.This book offers both an introduction to the laws of celestial mechanics and a step-by-step guide to developing software for direct use in astrophysics research. It bridges the gap between conventional textbooks, which present a rigorous and exhaustive exposition of theoretical concepts, and applying the theory to tackle real experiments. The text is written engagingly in dialogue form, presenting the research journey of the fictional Alice, Bob, and Professor Starmover. Moving Planets Around not only educates students on the laws of Newtonian gravity, it also provides all that they need to start writing their own software, from scratch, for simulating the dynamical evolution of planets and exoplanets, stars, or other heavenly bodies.

1 A Bestiary of Planets2 Physics Background3 First Two-Body Code4 Accuracy and Performance of the Integration5 Fixed Step-Size Integration6 Variable Step-Size Integration7 The Three- and N-Body Problems8 Gauss-Radau Integrator of Fifteenth Order9 Symplectic Map for Long-Term Integration10 Building a Production Code11 Defining the Project12 Setting Up the Project13 Running and Analyzing the Simulations14 How to Write a Publishable Research Paper15 Conclusions