Triaxial ellipsoids added in solar system

[granthutchison]

I've just added triaxial ellipsoid definitions to some of the solar system files on SVN. Affected bodies are:
2003 EL61 in data/outersys.ssc
Pallas and Juno in data/asteroids.ssc
A number of minor moons in extras/minormoons.ssc

These won't work under 1.5.0, but those of you who are compiling off SVN should be able to take a look now.

Grant

[Cham]

Grant,

About about "2003 EL61", are you sure of the size ? This body can be THAT ellipsoidal, with a longer size of 980 km ?

Code: Select all

SemiAxes [ 980 760 500 ] # estimate

[granthutchison]

That's about the size of it.
If you click on Info for 2003 EL61, the InfoURL will take you to Mike Brown's 2003 EL61 page, which includes an animation that is very similar to the appearance in Celestia.

Grant Hutchison

[Cham]

Really weird.

And what about its tiny moon ? Not enough data ?

[granthutchison]

And what about its tiny moon ? Not enough data ?

Both moons are there, under their current designations, 2005 (2003 EL61) 1 and 2005 (2003 EL61) 2.

Grant

[Cham]

Oops ! You're right ! I didn't noticed them. Thanks !

[granthutchison]

If you want a reference for the dimensions I've used, see Rabinowitz et al. Photometric observations constraining the size, shape and albedo of 2003 EL61, a rapidly rotating, Pluto-sized object in the Kuiper Belt. (362KB pdf).

Grant

[Epimetheus]

Whoa! That's one strange looking KBO! Like a big spinning ice cube with the cross section of an M&M!

Great job!