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AstronomicalData

Since Version 10, AstronomicalData has been superseded by PlanetData, StarData, etc.

AstronomicalData["name","property"]

gives the value of the specified property of the astronomical object with the specified name.

AstronomicalData["name",{"property",date}]

gives the value of a property at a particular date and time.

Details

Examples

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Basic Examples  (8)

A list of solar system planets:

Make a graphic of solar system orbit paths:

The known satellites of Neptune:

The escape velocity of Neptune:

The 10 nearest stars:

Distances in light years:

Spectral class information:

The first 15 Messier objects, in order of decreasing brightness:

Distance to the Andromeda galaxy in light years:

Find astronomical objects whose names begin with Alb:

Find the types of these objects:

Find the last rise time for the Sun from your current location and time:

Find the next rise time for the Sun from your current location and time:

Find the next rise time for the Sun from date and location:

Scope  (34)

Planetary Astronomy  (15)

The solar system planets:

Orbital eccentricity for each planet:

Orbital periods in sidereal years:

Rules for the orbital elements of Earth:

Obliquity of each planet:

Albedo of each planet:

An image of Jupiter:

The known satellites of Pluto:

Diameter of each satellite in meters:

Orbit semimajor axis in meters:

Number of known satellites for each planet:

The named constellations the Sun passes through over a year, including Ophiuchus:

Compute the ecliptic path for a planet over the course of a year:

The paths for the visible planets:

The distance from Earth to the visible planets over a year:

The apparent magnitude of the visible planets as viewed from Earth over a year:

Compute and plot the analemma of the Sun:

Compute positions for Venus in the morning sky for 2009:

Stellar Astronomy  (12)

The 15 brightest stars as seen from Earth:

The constellations for the 10 brightest stars:

Distance from Earth to Sirius in light years:

Distance in meters:

Position of Sirius:

Spectral class for the Sun:

Spectral class information in list form:

Alternate names for Sirius:

Henry Draper Memorial catalog number for Sirius:

Give the individual stars that form Alpha Centauri:

Give the name of Tau Ceti, including Greek letters:

The same thing without special characters:

Brightest 10 supergiants as seen from Earth:

Number of available supergiants:

Brightest 10 class O stars:

Brightest 10 Wolf–Rayet stars:

Deep Sky & Galactic Astronomy  (7)

Brightest 10 Messier objects:

Object types:

The brightest 10 planetary nebulas:

Declinations:

Brightest 10 galaxies:

Distances in light years:

Galaxy types of the brightest 10 galaxies:

Hubble types:

Surface brightness for the 10 brightest galaxies:

Alternate names for NGC 292:

Alternate names in Wolfram Language form:

Principal Galaxy Catalog number for NGC 292:

Applications  (15)

Planetary Astronomy  (5)

Make a table of densities of planets:

Log-log plot of orbital period versus distance for the planets, illustrating Kepler's third law:

The corresponding plot for all known planetary moons, with a line for each planet:

Find the total number of known planetary moons in the solar system:

Make a log rank plot of the masses of the moons, with names as tooltips:

Compute the number of minor planets at different distances from the Sun:

The Kirkwood gaps are the result of orbital resonances with Jupiter:

Plotting semimajor axis versus inclination reveals several distinct groups of minor planets:

Stellar Astronomy  (7)

Plot the RA and declination of the 100 brightest stars, with tooltips for their names:

The corresponding picture for the 100 nearest stars:

Rank plot of absolute magnitudes of the nearest 100 stars:

Rank plot of absolute magnitudes of the brightest 100 stars:

Distribution of basic spectral classes for the 100 brightest stars:

Distribution for the 100 nearest stars:

Rank plot of the distances to the nearest 100 stars:

Differences between successive distances:

Find the constellations with the largest number of stars in AstronomicalData:

Find the number of overlaps of different star catalogs:

Get the correct color and simulate lighting for a star:

The color of stars is an indication of their temperature:

Deep Sky & Galactic Astronomy  (3)

Rank plot of the distances to the brightest 200 galaxies:

Find how many objects are listed in both the NGC and Messier catalogs:

The Local Group of galaxies includes the Milky Way, M31, and their satellite galaxies:

Possible Issues  (4)

Pluto is not included in the list of solar system planets:

It is now considered a "dwarf planet":

Some information is unknown, for a variety of different reasons:

AstronomicalData combines star catalogs that select stars in different ways:

The precision of some time-varying properties decays with time:

Neat Examples  (1)

Plot diameter against discovery year for the known moons of Saturn:

Wolfram Research (2007), AstronomicalData, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/AstronomicalData.html (updated 2014).

Text

Wolfram Research (2007), AstronomicalData, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/AstronomicalData.html (updated 2014).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2007. "AstronomicalData." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2014. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/AstronomicalData.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2007). AstronomicalData. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/AstronomicalData.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2024_astronomicaldata, author="Wolfram Research", title="{AstronomicalData}", year="2014", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/AstronomicalData.html}", note=[Accessed: 18-May-2024 ]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2024_astronomicaldata, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={AstronomicalData}, year={2014}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/AstronomicalData.html}, note=[Accessed: 18-May-2024 ]}

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