Moon

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The real life near-Earth asteroid Eros

A captured asteroid is a moon which was previously a asteroid and was then captured by another planet. Some the moons in Kerbal Space Program are considered giant captured asteroids. In real life, almost all the moons in the solar system are asteroids caught in a planet's gravity. The in-game moons include Gilly, Bop and Pol.

Moons being classified as captured asteroids is based purely on observation. There is no difference between them and other celestial bodies in terms of game mechanics. Because asteroids are significantly smaller than classic moons their gravity is very weak. There are various properties which are shared amongst captured asteroids. Those indicators are the mass ratio between the moon and the orbiting body, an eccentric orbit, an inclined orbit and an uneven surface. The sphere of influence to semi-major axis ratio is the mass ratio raised to the power of ⅖.

The following table shows those properties for all moons. Except for the inclination all moons usually classified as captured asteroids group together and separate to the other moons when sorted. The unevenness is the quotient of the highest point divided by the radius. An unevenness of 0.01 means, that the highest mountain is as high as 1 % of the complete radius (as the highest point data isn't complete those unevenness values denoted as n/a).

Comparisons between the moons
Moon Mass ratio Eccentricity Inclination Unevenness

Captured asteroid/Row Captured asteroid/Row Captured asteroid/Row Captured asteroid/Row Captured asteroid/Row Captured asteroid/Row Captured asteroid/Row Captured asteroid/Row Captured asteroid/Row

Difference to asteroids

As of 0.23.5[outdated] normal asteroids were added. They are not like captured asteroids, as normal asteroids have no gravity and aren't on rails. They are also significantly smaller than any captured asteroid and need to be discovered using the tracking station.[1]

See also

References

  1. “Asteroid Redirect Mission - The FAQ” by Rowsdower released on March 14th