Starscream: A GPL code for galactic astronomy

Starscream is a code that I have developed for creating galaxy progenitors for N-body codes. The code implements a Springel-Hernquist model with a dark matter halo and a stellar disk, in a nutshell, and can write these initial conditions to a GADGET2 input file or others. More information is available in the manual.

The code is largely untested, but available freely to anyone who would like to use it. There are some videos of collisions, (Starscream+GADGET2), on Youtube.

Release Status: v1.1-- 20100213, available here. Added an Autoconf build system!

v 2.0, in Development: Python bindings, gas particles, etc.

There's a lot that could be done on a code like Starscream and unfortunately I'm no longer paid to do it! :-P I haven't made any progress on version 2.0 and I've started to consider it one of those things that may never happen. But then again, I'm taking Binney & Tremaine on vacation with me....

A snapshot produced from the Python interface: