Celestia Forums

For anyone who likes "2001- A Space Odyssey"...

"9000 Hal" "Sol" # 9000 Hal (1981 JO)
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "roughsphere.cms"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
Radius 5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 3.32945
SemiMajorAxis 2.2296808
Eccentricity 0.2088376
Inclination 6.2607
AscendingNode 226.85843
ArgOfPericenter 79.36968
MeanAnomaly 52.4639
Epoch 2452400.5
}

RotationPeriod 10
Albedo 0.5
}



For anyone who likes James Bond films...

"9007 James Bond" "Sol" # 9007 James Bond (1983 TE1)
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "roughsphere.cms"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
Radius 5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 3.89147
SemiMajorAxis 2.474024
Eccentricity 0.1515191
Inclination 5.84673
AscendingNode 210.19352
ArgOfPericenter 174.02969
MeanAnomaly 275.59165
Epoch 2452400.5
}

RotationPeriod 5
Albedo 0.5
}



Anyone whos into Elvis:
"Rocknroll" "Sol" # 17058 Rocknroll (1999 GA5)
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "roughsphere.cms"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
Radius 5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 4.13534
SemiMajorAxis 2.576335
Eccentricity 0.0716371
Inclination 14.95119
AscendingNode 25.99029
ArgOfPericenter 67.37942
MeanAnomaly 22.05077
Epoch 2452400.5
}

RotationPeriod 10
Albedo 0.5
}

"Elvis" "Sol" # 17059 Elvis (1999 GX5)
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "roughsphere.cms"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
Radius 5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 3.76052
SemiMajorAxis 2.4182065
Eccentricity 0.0831784
Inclination 3.50374
AscendingNode 272.57388
ArgOfPericenter 109.04378
MeanAnomaly 129.47253
Epoch 2452400.5
}

RotationPeriod 10
Albedo 0.5
}

Or "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"...
"Arthurdent" "Sol" # 18610 Arthurdent (1998 CC2)
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "roughsphere.cms"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
Radius 5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 4.06768
SemiMajorAxis 2.5481554
Eccentricity 0.2132722
Inclination 5.5741
AscendingNode 319.77346
ArgOfPericenter 138.47002
MeanAnomaly 45.57753
Epoch 2452400.5
}

RotationPeriod 10
Albedo 0.5
}



Antique violins...!!
"Stradivari" "Sol" # 19189 Stradivari (1991 YE1)
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "roughsphere.cms"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
Radius 5

EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 4.3747
SemiMajorAxis 2.6748116
Eccentricity 0.1927546
Inclination 14.26291
AscendingNode 97.80237
ArgOfPericenter 294.15235
MeanAnomaly 177.5738
Epoch 2452400.5
}

RotationPeriod 10
Albedo 0.5
}


Amazing what you can find on HORIZONS if you're bored!!

are any of these real, or are they all just from movies?

I don't really understand the point of this

Are these real atsteroids

The discoverers of asteroids, once the objects have been confirmed, have the right to submit whatever name they'd like to the IAU for approval. My understanding is that the IAU is rather generous in what it'll approve. Some of the names are, shall we say, whimsical.

Jack, thank you - very interesting.
Mike, Paul, remember : Google is your friend
eg. enter 18610 Arthurdent
and amongst other things you will find the Arthurdent asteroid home page
http://www.byte-o-matic.net/dna/
also :
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articl ... 91,00.html

Yes they are all real- as Selden said- the discoverers of an asteroid can name it whatever they want (within reason..) so long as the IAU approves.

There are actualy 2 whole pages on the Minor Planet Center's site ( http://cfa-www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/spec ... lowUp.html and http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/speci ... lowUp.html ) listing names of asteroids named after rock stars!! All the beatles are there except for Ringo...? I found a good few named after movie stars & various other famous people too!

Ive also looked up a few names of places and i've found many of them- a good few countries have their names in there also. Add yet another personal touch to Celestia!!



Oh btw Selden- you have an xyz file on your site for fragment A of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 -I was wondering what is the name or number to put into Telnet HORIZONS to get this? I was thinking of doing it for all 21...

Jack,

Horizons uses the prefix 'D/1993 F2' for Shoemaker-Levy 9.
(See http://cometography.com/lcomets/1993_F2.html )

When you give Horizons' telnet interface an ambiguous designation, it'll list all of the possible matches. D/1993 is ambiguous

'D/1993 F2-A' is the designation of the fragment that I used for the xyz trajectory.

I hope this helps.

How about 1721 Wells, 4923 Clarke and 5020 Asimov,,,

Jack, where did you get the orbital elements for your set ? From somewhere in Horizons was it ?

Ok Jack, forget my last bit, I've found elements for Asimov via Telnet Horizons.
This could be good fun ,,,

OT
Oh my goodness, telnet ! however did we manage, oh this is excruciating ! Oh timewarp !!
/OT

Yup thanx for that Selden thats great!!

Yes i know Malcolm- telnet just rocks doesnt it... Its like being back in the last century!! Wait hang on- that was two years ago...
Still, could be worse I suppose- imagine what a hellish place the world would be without Celestia!! Must get those 3 elements myself actually- telnet's a bit slow today though (Don't you just love dial up connections?)

Thank you Seldon and Jack for bringing the Horizons site to my attention, that is an interesting resource. And I like that FTP feature.

OT
Jack said : Don't you just love dial up connections?
Ha, tell me about it !,, like the time wife went shopping, car wouldnt start for return journey, was an hour before she could raise me on the phone, 'we' were not popular. The bad news is that it gave her the excuse to spend an extra hour shopping ( note use of word "spend" !)
Britain, leader of the industrial revolution, now we cant even build a superhighway
/OT

There is, of course, 1252 Celestia...