Comets
Every comet with an orbit in NASA JPL's Small-Body Database, from Halley's Comet to Hale-Bopp. One row per comet, with orbit type, period, perihelion distance and date, eccentricity, inclination, size where known and observation span.
Columns
Stable keys — use them in the API, SQL and code
| Key | Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| designation | Designation | string | Primary designation, e.g. 1P or C/1995 O1. |
| full_name | Comet | string | — |
| name | Name | string | Discoverer-based name, e.g. Halley, Hale-Bopp. |
| type | Type | string | From the designation prefix: Periodic, Non-periodic, Defunct / lost, Interstellar, etc. |
| orbit_class | Orbit class | string | JPL orbit class, e.g. Jupiter-family, Halley-type, Hyperbolic. |
| period_years | Period | number · years | Orbital period. |
| perihelion_au | Perihelion | number · AU | Closest distance to the Sun (1 AU = Earth–Sun distance). |
| semi_major_axis_au | Semi-major axis | number · AU | Negative for hyperbolic orbits. |
| eccentricity | Eccentricity | number | 0 = circle, <1 ellipse, 1 parabola, >1 hyperbola (unbound). |
| inclination_deg | Inclination | number · ° | Tilt of the orbit to Earth's orbital plane; >90° means retrograde. |
| perihelion_date | Perihelion date | date | Time of perihelion passage in JPL's current orbit solution. |
| earth_moid_au | Earth MOID | number · AU | Minimum distance between the comet's orbit and Earth's orbit. |
| diameter_km | Diameter | number · km | Nucleus diameter, where measured. |
| total_magnitude | Total magnitude (M1) | number | Comet total absolute magnitude parameter. |
| first_observed | First observed | date | Date of the first observation used in the orbit. |
| last_observed | Last observed | date | — |
| observations | Observations | integer | Number of observations used to compute the orbit. |
| url | JPL page | url | — |
More in Space & Astronomy
Confirmed exoplanets
Every confirmed planet outside the Solar System in the NASA Exoplanet Archive, with its host star, discovery details, orbit, size, mass and temperature. One row per planet.
Stars visible to the naked eye
Every star in the HYG stellar database with apparent visual magnitude 6.5 or brighter, roughly the limit of naked-eye visibility under a dark sky. One row per star, with name, constellation, brightness, distance, spectral type and position.
Meteorites: observed falls and large finds
Meteorites recognised by the Meteoritical Society, as compiled in NASA's Meteorite Landings dataset: every meteorite whose fall was witnessed, plus every meteorite found later that weighs at least 1 kg. One row per meteorite, with class, recovered mass, year and location.
Fireballs and bolides detected by U.S. government sensors
Bright meteors (fireballs and bolides) — small asteroids exploding in Earth's atmosphere — detected by U.S. government sensors and reported by NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, since 1988. One row per event, with time, location, altitude, speed and energy.
Objects launched into space by country and year
Number of satellites, probes, landers, crewed spacecraft and space-station modules launched into Earth orbit or beyond, by country and year since 1957, from the UN register of space objects. One row is one country in one year.
Astronauts and cosmonauts: people who have flown in space
Everyone Wikidata records as having spent time in space, from Yuri Gagarin in 1961 to today's space-station crews and commercial passengers. One row per person, with citizenship, date of birth, date of first spaceflight and total time in space.