P-Type Star System Simulation

About this simulation

P-type, or circumbinary, systems host planets that orbit a pair of stars instead of just one. In this visualization, both stars chase each other along concentric loops while a planet glides along a stable orbit that encloses the pair. You can see the barycenter sit at the center of the scene: the heavier star wobbles less, the lighter one swings wider, and the planet responds to the combined pull.

Lighting is shared between the suns so the planet inherits highlights from each star as they sweep overhead. A thin circumbinary disk gives you a reference plane, and dashed path markers keep the orbital geometry easy to read from the top-down camera.

What to look for

Track how the stellar pair never collide—their separation stays constant while the barycenter remains fixed. The planet’s motion stays smooth, but you can pause whenever it reaches periapsis to compare distances to both stars. Because axial tilt is enabled, daylight stripes slide across the planet at a different cadence than the orbital period, hinting at unusual seasons in binary systems.

Want to experiment further? The component accepts overrides for stellar masses, separation, and orbital periods, making it easy to mimic famous systems like Kepler-16 or TOI-1338 with a few prop tweaks.