Celestial phenomena: Cruithne, the Earth Second Moon

[Calculus]

I'm sure most of you have already heard of Cruithne. This asteroid, discovered in 1986, is sometimes called Earth second moon.

I made a strobe image and a little movie of its relative orbit with respect to the Earth-Sun system during the whole year 1986. If you look at my gallery, you'll see the famous "bean orbit". To make things visible I've just drastically increased the radius of the Earth and Cruithne. Everything else is real.

More to come...


For those who would like to play with Cruithne, here are its orbit's parameters:

"Cruithne 1986 TO" "Sol"
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
Radius 8.75

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 0.997002997680631
SemiMajorAxis 0.998
Eccentricity 0.514730
Inclination 19.818001
AscendingNode 125.797302
ArgOfPericenter 43.547829
MeanAnomaly 233.714294
Epoch 2445600.5
}

RotationPeriod 10
Albedo 0.0100
}

[Darkmiss]

Isn't Cruithne a comet ?

Ill change it if not,
but at the moment I have Cruithne in a comets.ssc file,
in my extras directory.

Along with Halley, Borrelly, Ikeya-Zhang, Hale-Bopp, 2000 PH5, 1998 UP1,
125P Spacewatch, 8P Tuttle...... and so on

I hope these are right, as these are things Iv'e picked up along the way in the forums.

[MalcolmP]

Isn't Cruithne a comet ?

Nope, asteroid, 3753 Cruithne.
Lots of info about it here :-
http://www.astro.queensu.ca/~wiegert/3753/3753.html

[Calculus]

Darkmiss

Along with Halley, Borrelly, Ikeya-Zhang, Hale-Bopp, 2000 PH5, 1998 UP1,
125P Spacewatch, 8P Tuttle...... and so on

Could you please give me the orbits parameters of "2000 PH5" and "1998 UP1" ?
Thanks

[billybob884]

i watched the video you put online, and wow, that comes pretty close to the earth

[timcrews]

Paul:

I just wanted to say, the work you are doing with Celestia is fantastic. I really enjoy how you take advantage of the visualizations that are possible with Celestia.

Tim

[Calculus]

billybob884

i watched the video you put online, and wow, that comes pretty close to the earth

No billybob, I increased the earth and cruithne radius bigger than the moon orbit itself. And moreover, Cruithme orbits with a 19.8 degre inclination. In 1986 its closest to earth was 0.352 au on dec 22! Not that far, and there is no chance in the future that it collides with earth (dixit experts)

Tim

I just wanted to say, the work you are doing with Celestia is fantastic. I really enjoy how you take advantage of the visualizations that are possible with Celestia.

Thank you. And there are more to come (some never seen yet! ) ... I just need time.

BTW, I also added an image of a comet orbit (not unusual but still very nice). Have a look.

[Darkmiss]

Here is all the comets I have from my comets.ssc file.
I had no part in making these, i got this info from this forum, a while ago.
And I have no idea if this data is correct.
as you may be able to tell from Cruithne being in here as a comet.

"85P Boethin" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 5.00

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 11.272571432871255
SemiMajorAxis 5.013338277218068
Eccentricity 0.777728222044744
Inclination 5.75635781638849
AscendingNode 26.4802487848544
ArgOfPericenter 11.6753694538222
Epoch 2446440.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"16P Brooks 2" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 5.00

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 6.8921671234759945
SemiMajorAxis 3.61145503785021
Eccentricity 0.491923076914473
Inclination 5.54811427470894
AscendingNode 176.913609180042
ArgOfPericenter 198.106400634952
Epoch 2452109.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"P/1999 V1 Catalina" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 16.832229356509785
SemiMajorAxis 6.549469226986052
Eccentricity 0.550462060395205
Inclination 15.5866987653289
AscendingNode 294.310820366569
ArgOfPericenter 186.693046011004
Epoch 2451476.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"P/1999 XN120 Catalina" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 8.572136363570502
SemiMajorAxis 4.176742741000233
Eccentricity 0.213200633169117
Inclination 5.03088820413496
AscendingNode 285.454210402703
ArgOfPericenter 161.8318615715
Epoch 2451680.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"2P Encke" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 3.316595805898654
SemiMajorAxis 2.2177199872198843
Eccentricity 0.846897949235528
Inclination 11.7554874586026
AscendingNode 334.599872202931
ArgOfPericenter 186.483605822072
Epoch 2451796.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"4P Faye" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 7.55132125509741
SemiMajorAxis 3.838194484165043
Eccentricity 0.568282307852658
Inclination 9.04897295894473
AscendingNode 199.338845138435
ArgOfPericenter 204.977550654332
Epoch 2451304.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"34P Gale" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 11.04071837664393
SemiMajorAxis 4.944357907927031
Eccentricity 0.760757276670286
Inclination 11.7271353111301
AscendingNode 67.9230568194286
ArgOfPericenter 209.15002153014
Epoch 2429080.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"100P Hartley 1" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 6.048495903595951
SemiMajorAxis 3.310370524190719
Eccentricity 0.450610076187861
Inclination 25.7233098347236
AscendingNode 38.9029147645938
ArgOfPericenter 178.932390923345
Epoch 2450596.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"103P Hartley 2" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 6.416659483515753
SemiMajorAxis 3.4433751510583392
Eccentricity 0.700374852041534
Inclination 13.6188738218125
AscendingNode 219.954372117462
ArgOfPericenter 180.722293472192
Epoch 2450803.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"110P Hartley 3" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 6.906191674535417
SemiMajorAxis 3.616352566011059
Eccentricity 0.314692610597821
Inclination 11.6884912292904
AscendingNode 287.753152827131
ArgOfPericenter 167.941745095205
Epoch 2451989.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"144P Kushida" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 7.609097759034371
SemiMajorAxis 3.8577474095658117
Eccentricity 0.6289927926621
Inclination 4.11878031827073
AscendingNode 245.625870214997
ArgOfPericenter 216.018961613891
Epoch 2452087.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"74P Smirnova-Chernykh" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 8.530886172744621
SemiMajorAxis 4.163332632911675
Eccentricity 0.148331936891348
Inclination 6.6524396173895
AscendingNode 77.156047192206
ArgOfPericenter 86.6546308752955
Epoch 2451924.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"125P Spacewatch" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 5.559218006804723
SemiMajorAxis 3.1293500730676276
Eccentricity 0.511529337372746
Inclination 9.98150465361608
AscendingNode 153.236969569002
ArgOfPericenter 87.3005715711574
Epoch 2452302.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"8P Tuttle" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 13.564880409895153
SemiMajorAxis 5.671818506245339
Eccentricity 0.824089446381203
Inclination 54.6925708236984
AscendingNode 270.548665611074
ArgOfPericenter 206.70298623731
Epoch 2449520.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"40P Vaisala 1" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 10.829657837331087
SemiMajorAxis 4.8811426801629265
Eccentricity 0.634713287944026
Inclination 11.5961294900022
AscendingNode 135.077763986805
ArgOfPericenter 47.3843118850619
Epoch 2449106.0
}
Albedo 10
}

"14P Wolf" "Sol"
{
Class "comet"
Texture "Comet.png"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 2.5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 8.243935500807705
SemiMajorAxis 4.069440809116079
Eccentricity 0.407134694255505
Inclination 27.5227713067435
AscendingNode 204.120869755777
ArgOfPericenter 162.362147410024
Epoch 2451869.0
}
Albedo 10
}

[Calculus]

thank you Darkmiss,
I actually found on the net a little more accurate parameters:
(and those are not comets but asteroids)

"Aristaeus" "Sol"
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
Radius 1.7

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 2.02386074170057
SemiMajorAxis 1.600
Eccentricity 0.503288
Inclination 23.028570
AscendingNode 190.860107
ArgOfPericenter 290.526764
MeanAnomaly 95.399193
Epoch 2445600.5
}

RotationPeriod 10
Albedo 0.0100
}

"2000 PH5" "Sol"
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
Radius 0.120

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 0.9995
SemiMajorAxis 0.9996361847
Eccentricity 0.229625344
Inclination 1.9555393
AscendingNode 283.3097971
ArgOfPericenter 272.6802572
MeanAnomaly 0.7103568
Epoch 2452400.5
}
RotationPeriod 10 #Guess
Albedo 0.0100 #Guess
}

"1998 UP1" "Sol"
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
Radius 0.365 #between 220 - 510


EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 0.9987
SemiMajorAxis 0.9991231101
Eccentricity 0.344959325
Inclination 33.1698548
AscendingNode 18.4197983
ArgOfPericenter 234.4377239
MeanAnomaly 295.0293126
Epoch 2452400.5
}
RotationPeriod 10 #Guess
Albedo 0.0100 #Guess
}

[Darkmiss]

Okay thank you Calculus.
I have removed 2000 PH5, and 1998 UP1 fron my comets.ssc
and moved them to my main solarsys.ssc as asteroids

if any of the others are not comets, or you spot any other mistakes in there,
Please let me know

[Calculus]

I've spotted 3 other asteroids in your file:
2002 MN
1950 DA
2002 EM7