Celestia Forums

I'm not sure if this is a feature or a bug... I just created a small planet as follows:



Much to my surprise, Celestia 1.4.1 rendered that as an asteroid, not a planet (ie with a brown label and orbit only visible when asteroid orbits are turned on, not a blue orbit). Is there a default radius below which an object is automatically classified as a planet in Celestia? I can override it by explicitly setting the Class as "planet", but is this assumption that it's an asteroid if not stated otherwise intentional or is it a bug?

I guess you could call this an 'asteroid', but it's not part of a belt at all, it's on its own independent orbit around the star.

If the Class isn't specified, then
If the radius is < 1000 km, it's considered an asteroid, otherwise a planet. If it's orbiting around another object, and the radius is < 0.1 km, it's considered a spacecraft, otherwise a moon.

selden wrote:If the Class isn't specified, then
If the radius is < 1000 km, it's considered an asteroid, otherwise a planet. If it's orbiting around another object, and the radius is < 0.1 km, it's considered a spacecraft, otherwise a moon.

OK, so I guess the solution is to explicitly specify the class if you have a small object and want it to be shown as a planet or moon. Thanks!