Irregular Galaxy Simulator

Irregular Galaxy

Tidal disturbance 0.00

Companion mass 1.0×

Orbital speed 0.20

Star formation rate 0.40

Asymmetry index

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Starburst clumps

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Tail length

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Orbital phase

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How it works

Unlike spirals and ellipticals, irregular galaxies have no rotational symmetry — their clumpy, asymmetric shape usually comes from a close pass by a neighboring galaxy. This simulator starts each star from a diffuse, roughly spherical cloud (the undisturbed baseline) and applies a differential tidal acceleration from an orbiting companion mass:

a_tidal ≈ 2·G·M_companion·r / D³
Δr = tidal · a_tidal · (r·â)·â   (stretch along the companion axis)

Because the tidal pull scales with a star's own distance r from the galaxy's center and falls off as the companion distance D cubed, stars far from the core on the near and far sides are stretched into two opposing tails while the core stays comparatively compact — exactly the lopsided, tail-and-clump morphology real irregulars show.

Tidal disturbance — overall strength of the companion's pull; at 0 the cloud stays a diffuse, near-symmetric blob, at 1 it is drawn into long asymmetric tidal tails.
Companion mass — scales the tidal acceleration directly; a heavier companion produces longer, more defined tails at the same disturbance setting.
Orbital speed — how fast the companion (and its tidal axis) sweeps around the galaxy, continually re-orienting which stars get stretched.
Star formation rate — the compression at the base of a tidal tail shocks gas and triggers bursts of young, hot blue stars (starburst regions), shown as bright blue clumps; this slider sets how many of those clumps light up.

Real-world relevance: the Magellanic Clouds and many dwarf irregulars near larger galaxies show exactly this pattern — tidal stripping from a close encounter, with H II starburst regions concentrated where the interaction compresses gas the most.

Old stellar population Starburst region (young stars) Companion galaxy

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