Moving Planets Around

This book offers an authoritative introduction to numerical methods for solving the gravitational N-body problem, one of the most important tools in theoretical astrophysics. It teaches the required basic principles of physics, numerical analysis, and good scientific coding practice, and does so in an original format that should be accessible and useful to students from high school to graduate school.

Scott Tremaine, Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, author with James Binney of Galactic Dynamics

In Moving Planets Around, Alice and Bob take the place of Aristotle and Plato in their transcendental dialogue of finding the best numerical integration method to calculate the orbital evolution of planetary systems. An amazing achievement and an absolute joy to read; for novice numericist all the way to the hardcore computational astrophysicist. I expect scholars quickly to pick up 'MPA' as a standard reference for their N-body integrations.

Simon Portegies Zwart, Professor at Leiden University, author with Steve McMillan of Astrophysical Recipes: the Art of AMUSE

This book is a true jewel aimed at undergraduate as well as graduate level. It focuses and boils down all the essential aspects of the numerical solution of orbits in a planetary system while deploying a state-of-the-art programming environment. This book is for those who are interested in planet dynamics and want to save themselves from one or two years of headache.

Tobias C. Hinse, Research Professor at Chungnam National University, South Korea