Question about asteroids. Just wondering something...

[Draconiator]

It says on the wiki that asteroids do not have any gravity as far as the game engine is concerned, but since they have MASS, wouldn't it be logical to assume they have their own gravity too? you just can't see it because they're so tiny.

[xXIndestructibleEVAXx]

maybe in real life, but the game literally doesn't show an asteroids gravity because the asteroids are just big, ugly parts that aren't accessible in VAB or SPH that spawn randomly around Kerbin.

[Eric S]

Basically, KSP doesn't give anything gravity unless it's got enough to have an SoI. Since Asteroids in game don't have SoIs, they have no gravity.

[jarmund]

maybe in real life, but the game literally doesn't show an asteroids gravity because the asteroids are just big, ugly parts that aren't accessible in VAB or SPH that spawn randomly around Kerbin.

What he said. In real life, mass results in gravity, but in the game that is not so. It's just a part (Curiously named potatoroid, if I remember correctly) and is pretty much treated as debris once in space

[capi3101]

What others have said is true. There's also the fact that even if asteroids in KSP had gravity, it'd be so negligible that it wouldn't be worth simulating. Take the case of a class E asteroid; they max out at a mass of about 3800 tonnes (3.8*10^6 kg) and are about 30 meters across. Surface gravity can be derived from Newton's Law of Gravitation, which states g = GM/r^2, where G is the gravitational constant of the universe, M is the mass and r is the radius (we'll treat the rock as a sphere even though it's procedurally generated and never perfectly spherical). 30 meters across means a radius of roughly 15 meters. Given those values, the surface gravity - and mind you, this is for the largest rock that KSP generates - is:

g = GM/r^2 = (6.67*10^-11 * 3.8*10^6) / 15^2 = .000001126

Which is about 1/43,500 the surface gravity of Gilly, if I've done the math right.

[Engineer of Stuff]

.....because the asteroids are just big, ugly parts that aren't accessible in VAB or SPH that spawn randomly around Kerbin.

You could edit the asteroid config to make it appear in the editor.

[amorymeltzer]

You could edit the asteroid config to make it appear in the editor.

When the editor first loads, I see a moment or two with a jumble of parts in the sidebar; pretty sure an asteroid is there.

[Engineer of Stuff]

When the editor first loads, I see a moment or two with a jumble of parts in the sidebar; pretty sure an asteroid is there.

You can make it appear permanently.

[Lhathron the Elf]

You could edit the asteroid config to make it appear in the editor.

This. It's fun to mess with them...

[pincushionman]

Also keep in mind if they DID have gravity, you'd be hard pressed to find one whose Hill sphere isn't entiresly within its own surface.