The light has reached Earth! Now we can (hypothetically, that is) observe it! Yay! Star formed on 9/12/20 (September 12th, 2020) Star born on 9/5/21 (September 5th, 2021) SUMMARY OF PROJECT: On the 12th of September 2020 I began this experimental simulation of a star being born exactly 1 lightyear away from Earth. That means that it should take 1 year for the first light to reach Earth. However, the vacuum of space is not a true vacuum, so there's lots of fluctuations* that disrupt the path of photons. (Photons are light particles). I coded in the physics of these fluctuations to ensure realism and accuracy of this star birth simulation. Everything had to be right, especially since this was a year-long experiment. *These fluctuations include gravitational waves (which come from black hole or neutron star collisions), gravitational pull from moving objects (like stars, planets, moons, or asteroids), and possibly quantum gravity (if it exists). But I didn't include physics for quantum gravity because right now it is just a theory within the quantum field theory. LOG: I am attempting to simulate a star after its formation! Edit [August 8th 2021]: After all this time, it's still holding strong to my calculations! Wow! There's now only 28 calendar days until the light is estimated to reach Earth! Edit [July 3rd 2021]: Almost there! Just a couple more months and then the light from the star will be visible from Earth! I can't wait! :D Edit [March 2nd 2021]: Since the light is almost half-way through its journey to earth, it's now easier to run the numbers to find the accuracy of my estimates. I have found that my equations are 98.326% accurate! I think that's accurate enough for my satisfaction, for sure! :) [Sep 12th 2020]: This artificial star was formed: mm/dd/yyyy = 09/12/2020 at 12:00:09am EDT Saturday, September 12th, 2020 @ 24:00:09 (or 00:00:09) GMT-4 The star's first light is estimated to reach Earth's surface on September 5th, 2021 (mm/dd/yyyy = 09/05/2021) Light travels through the vacuum of space at a constant speed of 299,792 kilometers per second (186,282 miles per second). The distance between the star and the earth is approximately 1 lightyear. I have the star's surface and the earth's surface separated by 359 x-position coordinates (the star's surface is at x=-179 and the earth's surface is at x=179, plus 1 more because x=0 is technically counted as a coordinate that the light will pass through on its journey along the x axis, so that is why it is 359 instead of 358).
