Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> In article <K0I1tK.FCI@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> Dorothy J Heydt <djheydt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> In article <fvr9nn$gjs$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>> James Nicoll <jdnicoll@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> http://janus.astro.umd.edu/SolarSystems/
>>>
>>> This is an animated model of the solar system, the moon systems of
>>> planets with Moons and stellar systems as well.
>> Oh, cute. If they had modeled the major asteroids as well, that
>> would've helped with a thing I'm trying to write, but maybe that
>> would be too complex. Still, my guy is going to spend almost all
>> his time either on or inside 4 Vesta, so I should be able to
>> cope.
>
> Ooops, I typed too soon. You can zoom in and get the dozen
> largest asteroids, and there's an option to label them too.
>
And I replied too soon -- missed that the first time around.
That's really useful for tuning my intuitions. Ceres, Vesta,
Pallas, Hygiea and Psyche are all present and correct;
Unspecified Space Ranger Rock X could well be; and the only one I
strongly suspect I need to know but don't have is Sylvia (where
is she?!). Nice.
I don't think they're the largest dozen, though -- Interamnia is
the next down from the Big Four, and it's not there at all, nor
can I find Davida. (That is *not* a name the colonists are going
to perpetuate!) My guess is that selection follows some related
but slightly divergent criterion of im****tant, whose exact nature
escapes me, but may involve a fair admixture of programmer whim.
As you say, to make it an all-round useful tool for such things
would require something a bit more sophisticated than just adding
the data for the next N rocks.
--
Cheers,
Gray
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