Milky Way generator (is fractal?)

[forth]

More images: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxPunKH

Code:

(* Mathematica 8.0 *) 
(* product binary combination *)
PBC[p_, n_] := Product[p[[b + 1]]^BitGet[n, b], {b, 0, Length[p] - 1}]
p := Table[RandomReal[WorkingPrecision -> 20] + I, {i, 15}]
p = Sort[p, Re[#1] < Re[#2] &]
t := Table[
  Module[{x = PBC[p, j]}, {Re[x], Im[x]}], {j, 0, BitShiftLeft[1, Length[p]] - 1}]
ListPlot[t, AspectRatio -> 1, Axes -> False]
ListLinePlot[t, ColorFunction -> Function[{x, y}, Hue[x + y]], 
 AspectRatio -> 1]

So, our galaxy is a product of several tens of complex numbers? 

Why sometimes a points are collected in a well-marked five branches?

P.S. Sorry, English isn't my mother tongue.

[forth]

I call it "stochastic spiral".
Rotation video:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Dk4CryTbfc0&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Dk4CryTbfc0&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1</a>

[cKleinhuis]

have you included the black mass phenom ? i mean that speeds of outer orbits are exactly the same as the inner speeds ? contrary to popular belief....

[forth]

I do not plan to fully mimic the nature.
There is 18 clusters. Clusters are obtained from a Hamming weight (ie how many numbers are included in product.) On video below each cluster has it own hue.
Cluster number also means how many turns it will make, so naturally the rate varies.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/FJUxgTJlhEw&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/FJUxgTJlhEw&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Qm--CCfT2lM&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Qm--CCfT2lM&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1</a>

[DarkBeam]

Why don't you use Apophysis like all other folks for random flames?

Luca

[cKleinhuis]

it isnt a flame it is a dynamic system, that shows fractal behaviour ... but you might be right, it could be expressed through a flame system as well....

[DarkBeam]

Well I implemented an attractor into Apo some months ago it worked fine. Attractors are dyn systems

[taurus]

i think it was back in the 70s, when hénon did something very similar with his hénon-attractor. afaik it represents a simplification of gravity discs (instead of points) to simulate gravitational effects inside of galaxies...