http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/
called 2006 DD1. It comes to within 0.3 Lunar Orbits so I think it shoud even be visible with a good telescope? But the speed of these things probably makes them not easy to observe, unless you have the accurate ephemeris data and computer tracking? I wouldn't know really...
Here are the Celestia orbital elements from http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?sstr=2006%20DD1 , the period I computed from the semi-major axis to give a litle more accuracy but 3.279 is probably as accurate as it gets.. I have not yet checked the elements runing in the Celestia program. But I think it should work, just copy the code as a text file in 'Extras'. After today the elliptical orbit is not very useful anymore because gravitational effects altered it.
Code: Select all
# with JPL data, solution JPL#1
# period recalculated from value
# JPL semimajoraxis with formula for two-body problem
# from Sir Isaac Newton ref
# http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-major_axis
# http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gravitational_parameter
# using a sidereal year of 365.25636042 mean solar days
# and using 1 AU = 1.49597870691 x 10^11 (?± 3) m
# Asteroid (2006 DD1)
# Record: 604077 SPK-ID: 3323939
# Alternate Designation: none
# OSCULATING ORBITAL ELEMENTS
# (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
# Solution ID = JPL#1
# Epoch = 2006-02-22.0 (2453788.5) TDB
"(2006 DD1) " "Sol"
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
Radius 0.01 # no data but guess made from H = 26.50
EllipticalOrbit
{
Epoch 2453788.5
Period 3.27948189030614 # Not all digits will be accurate
SemiMajorAxis 2.20734253245919
Eccentricity 0.650018718584586
Inclination 8.98362282557982
AscendingNode 154.180189443528
ArgOfPericenter 63.9179846152614
MeanAnomaly 347.381365422583
}
Albedo 0.7 # fiction, large because we want it visible!!!
RotationPeriod 4 # (hours) random choice
}
Regards, Eelco