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A Game That Lets You Build — Or Destroy — Your Own Solar System

If you've ever wondered just how skillful you might be at designing a solar system, here's your chance to try your hand at it. A new game lets you build a solar system — and then see it in action.

The game is the work of Stefano Meschiari, a postdoctoral fellow at The University of Texas at Austin in the McDonald Observatory. As a student, he worked on Systemic Console, an application designed to deal with the data from real-life planets, the mechanics of which inspired the game.

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You can add up to 12 different kinds of objects into your DIY solar system, ranging from stacking a universe with multiple Earths to dropping in a dwarf star. Extra points are awarded for the inclusion of more massive objects in space, though they also up the potential to destabilize the whole thing into an interstellar crash.

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The goal, says Meschiari, is to build a solar system with the stability to last for at least 500 years. Though there's also something curiously satisfying about building a solar system that's destined to crash and burn out much quicker than that, as the name of the game, Super Planet Crash, suggests.

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You can go play the game here — and let us know how you did in the comments!