How to simulate an explosion in space I have a simulation of some bodies orbiting each other in space, and I would like to add explosions to it to see how the behave, but I don't know how to do it.
Sorry if this is has been asked before, but physics isn't my strength and I don't even know where to begin my google search.
 A: Typically orbital motion simulations involve solving the equations of motion in the form,
\begin{align}
\frac{\mathrm d\mathbf x}{\mathrm dt}&=\mathbf v\\
\frac{\mathrm d\mathbf v}{\mathrm d t}&=\frac{1}{m}\mathbf F
\end{align}
Normally the force is just the gravitational force between bodies. 
Since you want to add an explosion, this involves an additional force for those objects in the path of the shockwave (force due to pressure gradient). This is going to be an added complication since you are now incorporating a background fluid to a particle simulation, which would suggest adding the Euler hydrodynamics to the simulation (which requires a lot more code).
However, you may be able to use the Sedov solution to the blast wave & determine the distance from the explosion's origin at time $t$ and the pressure as a function of the distance. Adding this into your code will be a bit less intensive than a whole multi-dimensional hydrodynamics solver, but it won't be with out some difficulty as the Sedov solution does involve some root-finding.
