Irregular Galaxy Simulator

Irregular galaxies lack the tidy symmetry of spirals or ellipticals — their chaotic, patchy shape is usually the fingerprint of a close gravitational encounter with a neighboring galaxy. This simulator starts from a diffuse, near-spherical cloud of old stars and lets a companion galaxy's tidal pull stretch it into asymmetric tails as the disturbance strength rises, while shocked gas at the base of each tail lights up as a starburst region of young blue stars. Adjust tidal disturbance, companion mass, orbital speed and star formation rate to see how a smooth cloud turns into the clumpy, tailed shape typical of a real irregular galaxy.