Python Pygame Solar System Simulation Tutorial

The article walks through building a simple solar‑system animation with Python and Pygame, showing how to load images, render text, play background music, and animate planets orbiting the Sun.

Preparation : Gather a space‑background picture and transparent PNGs for the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. All assets are loaded from local file paths.

Import required modules :

import pygame
import sys
import math
from pygame.locals import *

Initialize the window and fonts :

size = width, height = 1206, 780
screen = pygame.display.set_mode(size)
pygame.display.set_caption("太阳系行星运转示意图")
myfont = pygame.font.Font(None, 60)
clock = pygame.time.Clock()

Load the background image (replace the placeholder with the actual path):

background = pygame.image.load(r"这里填背景图片本地路径")
screen.blit(background, (0, 0))

Add optional background music :

pygame.mixer.music.load('F:/music.mp3')
pygame.mixer.music.play(-1, 40)
pygame.mixer.music.set_volume(0.5)

Main loop – handles events, draws the scene, updates planet positions, and refreshes the display:

while True:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == QUIT:
            sys.exit()
    # draw background
    background = pygame.image.load(r"E:/3.PNG")
    screen.blit(background, (0, 0))
    # render title text
    textImage = myfont.render("Solar System", True, (255, 255, 0))
    screen.blit(textImage, (100, 100))
    # draw Sun and planet labels (example for Sun)
    my_font = pygame.font.SysFont("arial", 15)
    text_surface = my_font.render("Sun", True, (255, 0, 0), (0, 0, 0))
    screen.blit(text_surface, (1020, 30))
    sun = pygame.image.load(r"F:/solar-system/image/sun_bg.png")
    screen.blit(pygame.transform.scale(sun, (170, 170)), (527, 307))
    # ... (similar code for other planets) ...
    # update display and control frame rate
    pygame.display.flip()
    clock.tick(50)

Planet orbital calculations (illustrated for Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon):

# Mercury
roll_3 += 0.077
pos_3_x = int(size[0] // 2 + size[1] // 8 * math.sin(roll_3))
pos_3_y = int(size[1] // 2 + size[1] // 8 * math.cos(roll_3))
mercury = pygame.image.load(r"F:/solar-system/image/mercury_bg.png")
screen.blit(pygame.transform.scale(mercury, (8, 8)), (pos_3_x, pos_3_y))

# Venus
roll_2 += 0.069
pos_2_x = int(size[0] // 2 + size[1] // 7 * math.sin(roll_2))
pos_2_y = int(size[1] // 2 + size[1] // 7 * math.cos(roll_2))
venus = pygame.image.load(r"F:/solar-system/image/venus_bg.png")
screen.blit(pygame.transform.scale(venus, (10, 10)), (pos_2_x, pos_2_y))

# Earth
roll_e += 0.060
pos_e_x = int(size[0] // 2 + size[1] // 6 * math.sin(roll_e))
pos_e_y = int(size[1] // 2 + size[1] // 6 * math.cos(roll_e))
earth = pygame.image.load(r"F:/solar-system/image/earth_min_bg.png")
screen.blit(pygame.transform.scale(earth, (15, 15)), (pos_e_x, pos_e_y))

# Moon (orbiting Earth)
roll_m += 0.2
pos_m_x = int(pos_e_x + size[1] // 50 * math.sin(roll_m))
pos_m_y = int(pos_e_y + size[1] // 50 * math.cos(roll_m))
moon = pygame.image.load(r"F:/solar-system/image/mercury_bg.png")
screen.blit(pygame.transform.scale(moon, (6, 6)), (pos_m_x, pos_m_y))

By combining these elements, the script produces a continuously animated view of the planets revolving around the Sun, with the Moon revolving around Earth, and optional background music to enhance the experience.