2008 TC3 add-on

[chris]

I've created an add-on that simulates the asteroid 2008 TC3's orbit and entry into the Earth's atmosphere. There are two versions of the add-on available: one for Celestia 1.5.1, and one that will only work with recent 1.6.0 builds. The 1.6.0 version uses a more accurate trajectory.

For Celestia 1.5.1: http://www.celestiaproject.net/~claurel/celest ... c3-151.zip
For Celestia 1.6.0: http://www.celestiaproject.net/~claurel/celest ... c3-160.zip

The trajectory was created from an ephemeris generated by HORIZONS. HORIZONS will actually integrate the position of a small body over time, so gravitational effects are taken into account. I don't believe any atmospheric modeling is done, so the position of 2008 TC3 in its last few seconds may not be that accurate.

The version of the add-on for 1.6.0 includes a simple celx script that highlights the asteroid with a marker and shows it's footprint on Earth. The latter is the area on Earth from which the asteroid is visible--it's quite a useful visualization aid when the asteroid is close.

I've created two YouTube videos from this add-on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FW3oaZgCz0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxa2PUluqVU

It was fun to monitor 2008 TC3 in Celestia in real time, knowing that the asteroid really was closing in on Earth.

--Chris

[t00fri]

Nice, but this 2008 TC-3 video has considerably more action

Rallye Villa Joiosa 2008 TC-3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF-LWw2_ct0

Fridger

[Adirondack]

I've created an add-on that simulates the asteroid 2008 TC3's orbit and entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Wow!

Adirondack

[ElChristou]

I wonder if the visibleregion argument used in your celx could not become a hardcoded feature of the contextual menu for any satellite... (like terminator or planetographic grid for planets)

[chris]

I made an image of the trajectory of 2008 TC3 (from the add-on, now available on the Motherlode) with the experimental ground track feature. The country borders are from Cham and Grant's excellent political borders add-on.

2008tc3-track-alt.jpg

--Chris

[ElChristou]

I made an image of the trajectory of 2008 TC3 (from the add-on, now available on the Motherlode) with the experimental ground track feature. The country borders are from Cham and Grant's excellent political borders add-on.

2008tc3-track-alt.jpg

What would be interesting to have with this new feature is the long/lat at each intersection points of the perpendicular lines with the ground and why not the distance/altitude at the intersection of these lines with the orbit. Now that would clutter the view quite a bit... Perhaps the data could be displayed if the mouse came over the corresponding point?

[Cham]

I agree with ElChristou. This could be a usefull feature, live in Celestia (hard coded), with distance and coordinates. Is this possible, Chris ?

[symaski62]

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/pgj/2008_TC3.htm (french)

[duds26]

I made an image of the trajectory of 2008 TC3 (from the add-on, now available on the Motherlode) with the experimental ground track feature. The country borders are from Cham and Grant's excellent political borders add-on.

2008tc3-track-alt.jpg

--Chris

Some anti-aliasing could really make these lines look nicer.

[chris]

I made an image of the trajectory of 2008 TC3 (from the add-on, now available on the Motherlode) with the experimental ground track feature. The country borders are from Cham and Grant's excellent political borders add-on.

2008tc3-track-alt.jpg

--Chris

Some anti-aliasing could really make these lines look nicer.

You mean like in Celestia?

--Chris