# Orbital rotation equation

I am developing a space sandbox (3D). Now I am working on an asteroid belt around a planet. I have an Asteroid class and an AsteroidBelt class that has a collection of the Asteroid instances. Each Asteroid object is placed randomly during initialization.

Asteroid class:

Matrix4 transform;
double angle;
float x, y, z;
Vector3 initPosition;

public Asteroid(ModelObject object, Texture diffuseTex){

initPosition = new Vector3(
MathUtils.random(-Settings.RingsDepth, Settings.RingsDepth), //x
MathUtils.random(-.5f, .5f), //y
MathUtils.random(-Settings.RingsDepth, Settings.RingsDepth)); //z
}

public void update(Camera camera){

angle += Settings.RingsRotationalSpeed;
if(angle>360) angle=0;
if(angle<0) angle = 360;

y = initPosition.y;

transform.idt();
transform.translate(x, y, z);
}


The code above works correctly, but it doesn't allow to rotate the asteroid belt around a planet. How to modify x, y, and z to rotate the asteroid belt around a planet freely? I hope the illustration below will clarify my problem:

Now the asteroid belt looks like below: But I need to rotate it from -90 to 90 degrees by X and Y axis: Any help will be appreciated!

• This looks similar to a previous question answered here — are you able to adapt that solution to your needs? – DMGregory Feb 22 at 19:54
• @DMGregory, thank you, but I've already solved it. – Nolesh Feb 23 at 4:52

LibGDX allows us to get rid of complex mathematics. I've solved my issue by using Matrix4 class:

Asteroid class:

Vector3 position;
Matrix4 rotationMatrtix;

public void update(Camera camera){

angle += Settings.RingsRotationalSpeed;
if(angle>360) angle=0;
if(angle<0) angle = 360;

y = initPosition.y;

position.set(x, y, z);

//rotate asteroid around X-axis
rotationMatrtix.setToRotation(Vector3.X, Settings.RingsXRotation);
position.mul(rotationMatrtix);

//rotate asteroid around Z-axis
rotationMatrtix.setToRotation(Vector3.Z, Settings.RingsZRotation);
position.mul(rotationMatrtix);

transform.idt();
transform.translate(position);
}


Don't forget to create instances of the position and rotationMatrtix