.. include:: references.txt .. raw:: html .. module:: gala **** Gala **** Galactic Dynamics is the study of the formation, history, and evolution of galaxies using the *orbits* of objects — numerically-integrated trajectories of stars, dark matter particles, star clusters, or galaxies themselves. ``gala`` is an Astropy-affiliated Python package that aims to provide efficient tools for performing common tasks needed in Galactic Dynamics research. Much of this code uses Python for flexible, user-friendly interfaces that interact with wrappers around low-level code (primarily C) to enable fast computations. Common operations include `gravitational potential and force evaluations `_, `orbit integrations `_, `dynamical coordinate transformations `_, and computing `chaos indicators for nonlinear dynamics `_. ``gala`` heavily uses the units and astronomical coordinate systems defined in the Astropy core package (:ref:`astropy.units ` and :ref:`astropy.coordinates `). This package is being actively developed in `a public repository on GitHub `_, and we are always looking for new contributors! No contribution is too small, so if you have any trouble with this code, find a typo, or have requests for new content (tutorials or features), please `open an issue on GitHub `_. .. note:: Welcome to the new Gala documentation! The documentation has a new theme and some new content. Use the links in the nav bar above, the page listing below, or the search bar on the left to dive in! .. --------------------- .. Nav bar (top of docs) .. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 :titlesonly: install getting_started tutorials user_guide contributing Contributors ============ .. include:: ../AUTHORS.rst Citation and Attribution ======================== |JOSS| |DOI| `Here is a list of papers that use Gala `_ If you make use of this code, please cite the `JOSS `_ paper: .. code-block:: bibtex @article{gala, doi = {10.21105/joss.00388}, url = {https://doi.org/10.21105%2Fjoss.00388}, year = 2017, month = {oct}, publisher = {The Open Journal}, volume = {2}, number = {18}, author = {Adrian M. Price-Whelan}, title = {Gala: A Python package for galactic dynamics}, journal = {The Journal of Open Source Software}} Please also cite the Zenodo DOI |DOI| of the version you used as a software citation: .. include:: ZENODO.rst .. |JOSS| image:: http://joss.theoj.org/papers/10.21105/joss.00388/status.svg :target: http://joss.theoj.org/papers/10.21105/joss.00388 .. |DOI| image:: https://zenodo.org/badge/17577779.svg :target: https://zenodo.org/badge/latestdoi/17577779