Earth's other moon: An exercise in computational dynamics

Statistics – Computation

Scientific paper

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Computational Techniques, Simulations, Classical Mechanics Of Discrete Systems

Scientific paper

In September 2006 a meter-sized object designated as 6R10DB9 was temporarily captured by Earth's gravity and made three turns around Earth before leaving a geocentric orbit. This event provided an excellent case study for my upper-level undergraduate classical mechanics course. Students did a four-body (Sun, Earth, Moon, and 6R10DB9) simulation to reproduce the object's path and examine its dynamics. The initial positions and velocities were downloaded from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Horizons service. It was found that the Moon's presence causes 6R10DB9 to orbit Earth three times rather than once. Coupling multi-body dynamical models with Horizons data allows numerous other potential applications for physics and astronomy classes and student research projects; several possibilities are suggested.

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