Asteroid Properties Query Form
This form is used to find asteroids in the database given one or more
attributes. You may enter values for an exact match, limits or ranges.
- For an exact match, just enter the value. All fields except the
taxonomic classification take numeric values and should be entered
without quotes of any kind. The taxonomic classification string is
case-sensitive regarless of the presence of quotes, but double quotes
may be used to resolve ambiguities in this field, if needed.
- To specify a limit, use the standard logical operators, < and >,
with the limiting value.
- To specify that the value must lite within a given range, use a
semicolon (;) to separate the extreme values. For example:
1.0;5.0. Spaces around the semicolon are not significant.
Following are brief definitions for each of the properties listed on the
form.
- Albedo
- Can't come up with a sufficiently intelligent-sounding definition
for this off the top of my head.
- Radius
- Is this the average radius?
- Diameter
- Diameter along the principal axis(?)
- Rotation Period
- Presumably rotation about the principal axis as measured from a
lightcurve
- Semi-major axis (a)
- Mean distance from the Sun (remember, the general public will be
reading this. Maybe.)
- Eccentricity (e)
- Ellipticity of the orbit. A circle has an ellipticity of 1.0; e<1.0
indicates an elliptical orbit.
- Period (P)
- Number of Earth years it takes the object to revolve once around the
Sun
- Inclination (i)
- Inclination of the asteroid orbit to the ecliptic plane (the Earth's
orbit)
- Perihelion Date (T)
- Date of the last (or possibly next) most recent perihelion passage
- Polarization zero-crossing point
- ?
- Polarization slope at inversion
- ??
- U-B
- ?
- B-V
- ?
- Absolute Magnitude
- How do you define this for asteroids?
- Taxonomic classification
- Actually, I'm not sure how to implement this yet, either.