Planet Science and Small Bodies in the Solar System
===================================================

**Just started**

--------------

For astrophysicists who is mainly interested in identifying/getting rid of known asteroids in their data:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-  Web-based service, good for just checking a few targets: `IAU Minor
   Planet Center – Minor Planet
   Checker <https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/cgi-bin/checkmp.cgi>`__

   -  Only accept certain formats (coordinates need to be sexagesimal,
      or you need to format your observations in `MPC80COL
      format <https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/info/OpticalObs.html>`__)
   -  No (officially supported) API

-  Command-line program that can be executed locally:
   `astcheck <https://www.projectpluto.com/pluto/devel/astcheck.htm>`__

   -  If you need to check for asteroids regularly and/or have a large
      number of targets, this is for you
   -  You do need to maintain an up-to-date copy of either the `ASTORB
      dataset <ftp://ftp.lowell.edu/pub/elgb/astorb.html>`__ or the
      `MPCORB dataset <http://www.projectpluto.com/mpcorb.htm>`__
   -  Be careful about the epochs: it only works when the epoch of your
      observation matches/is near the epoch of the ASTORB/MPCORB
      dataset. In other words, be careful if you are checking archival
      data (you will need to integrate the orbits back to the epoch you
      want – use
      `integrat <https://www.projectpluto.com/pluto/integrat.htm>`__ to
      do that)

Small Bodies
------------

Asteroid and Near-Earth Object Survey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-  `IAU Minor Planet Center <https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/>`__

   -  `NEO Confirmation
      Page <https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/NEO/toconfirm_tabular.html>`__
   -  `Possible Comet Confirmation
      Page <https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/NEO/pccp_tabular.html>`__
   -  `Minor Planet
      Database <https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search>`__
   -  `MPChecker – checking for known
      asteroids/comets <https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/cgi-bin/checkmp.cgi>`__

-  `NASA/JPL Center for Near Earth Object
   Studies <https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/>`__

   -  `Small-Body Database <https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi>`__

      -  `PYTHON wrapper:
         astroquery.jplhorizons <https://astroquery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/jplhorizons/jplhorizons.html>`__

   -  `SENTRY – impact risk of known
      objects <https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/sentry/>`__
   -  `SCOUT – impact risk of to-be-confirmed
      objects <https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/scout/#/>`__

-  `ESA NEODyS <https://newton.spacedys.com/neodys/index.php?pc=7.0>`__

Minor Planet Center Related (be aware: may be outdated/not maintained)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

-  ```mpc-fetch.py`` - fetches properties of all objects that match
   search params <https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpc-fetch.py>`__
-  ```astroquery.mpc`` - Minor Planet Center
   Queries <https://astroquery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/mpc/mpc.html>`__
-  ```mpc-client`` - A python client for the Minor Planet Center’s MPC
   web service <https://github.com/qdonnellan/mpc-client>`__

Characterization
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-  `PYTHON – Photometry
   Pipeline <https://photometrypipeline.readthedocs.io/en/latest/>`__
-  `ADAM <https://github.com/matvii/ADAM>`__ – asteroid shape
   reconstruction from resolved observations

General Tools
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-  `sbpy - A Python package for small bodies
   research <https://github.com/NASA-Planetary-Science/sbpy>`__

   -  **sbpy** is a community effort to build a Python package for
      small-body planetary astronomy in the form of an astropy
      affiliated package. See the `sbpy website for
      more <http://mommermi.github.io/>`__
   -  Include functionalities for planning observations, modeling
      photometry, fitting astrometry and orbit, analysing spectroscopic
      data, simulating and analysing cometary gas and dust coma,
      estimating size/albedo of asteroid, enhancing images, and
      analysing lightcurve.
   -  `sbpy Tutorials and Workshops
      Materials <https://github.com/NASA-Planetary-Science/sbpy-tutorial>`__

`Solar System Geometry <https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/solar_system_geometry.pdf>`__
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

-  `SPICE - An Observation Geometry System for Space Science
   Missions <https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/>`__

   -  NASA’s Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF) offers
      NASA flight projects and NASA funded researchers an observation
      geometry information system named “SPICE” to assist scientists in
      planning and interpreting scientific observations from space-based
      instruments aboard robotic planetary spacecraft.
   -  `The SPICE
      Toolkit <https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/toolkit.html>`__ is
      available in C, Fortran, IDL, and Matlab.
   -  `SpiceyPy - Python wrapper for the NAIF C SPICE
      Toolkit <https://github.com/AndrewAnnex/SpiceyPy>`__

      -  `Online document can be found
         here <https://spiceypy.readthedocs.io/en/master/>`__

Object Detection
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

-  `spiops - Extension of SPICE functionalities for ESA
   Missons <https://github.com/esaSPICEservice/spiops>`__

   -  **spiops** is a library aimed to help scientists and engineers
      that deal with Solar System Geometry mainly for planetary science

-  `SALTAD <https://github.com/NASA-Planetary-Science/SALTAD>`__

   -  **SALTAD** is comprised of a series of C language function modules
      for image processing multiframe image data to detect moving
      asteroids in a star cluttered background.

Planets
-------

-  `Gazetteer of Planetary
   Nomenclature <https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/>`__

   -  The Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature is maintained by the
      Planetary Geomatics Group of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center.

Modeling and Simulating Planet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-  `Beam - A Monte Carlo Radiative Transfer Code for studies of Saturn’s
   Rings <https://github.com/physicsguy42/BEAM_beta>`__
-  `mpc-fetch.py - fetches properties of all objects that match search
   params <https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpc-fetch.py>`__
-  `astroquery.mpc - Minor Planet Center
   Queries <https://astroquery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/mpc/mpc.html>`__
-  `mpc-client - A python client for the Minor Planet Center’s MPC web
   service <https://github.com/qdonnellan/mpc-client>`__