Wikipedia:WikiProject Astronomical objects
Wikipedia Project: Astronomical objects |
Galaxies | [ Related changes ] |
IC objects | [ Related changes ] |
Messier objects | [ Related changes ] |
NGC objects | [ Related changes ] |
To expand
Messier 73, Jewel Box, (Kappa Crucis Cluster),
Astronomy Collaboration of the Week
Planets and moons
[image of object] | |||||||
Discovery | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Discovered by | ___name___ | ||||||
Discovered on | ___date___ | ||||||
Orbital characteristics | |||||||
Mean radius | km | ||||||
Ortbital circumference | km | ||||||
Eccentricity | number | ||||||
Perihelion | km | ||||||
Aphelion | km | ||||||
Orbital period | d (other units, such as years) | ||||||
Synodic period | d (other units, such as years) (w/respect to Earth) | ||||||
Avg. orbital speed | m/s | ||||||
Inclination | ° | ||||||
Longitude of the ascending node |
decimal ° (° ' ") | ||||||
Argument of the perihelion |
decimal ° (° ' ") | ||||||
Satellites | number | ||||||
Satellite of | planet (only for Moons) | ||||||
Physical characteristics | |||||||
Mean diameter | km (axis × axis × axis for ellipsoids) | ||||||
Equatorial diameter | km | ||||||
Polar diameter | km | ||||||
Oblateness | number | ||||||
Surface area | km2 | ||||||
Volume | km3 | ||||||
Mass | kg | ||||||
Mean density | g/cm3 | ||||||
Surface gravity | m/s2 | ||||||
Escape velocity | km/s | ||||||
Rotation period | d | ||||||
Rotation velocity | km/h (at the equator) | ||||||
Obliquity | ° | ||||||
Albedo | number | ||||||
Surface temperature |
| ||||||
Atmospheric characteristics | |||||||
Pressure | kPa | ||||||
most common | % | ||||||
next-most-common | % | ||||||
etcetera | % |
This page is where work is being done to come up with a generic table template to be used for organizing a list of facts about various astronomical bodies such as planets, natural satellites, and maybe also smaller bodies such as asteroids and comets (though I suspect that both asteroids and comets will be better served by having their own template design).
Most of these entries should be measured in SI units. Some of them, however, should have more "human-accessible" units, either in addition to or instead of SI units. I've indicated some cases with a second unit name in brackets. In the case of times (orbital periods, rotation), I think it best to give all periods in days for comparison purposes, and provide a translation (in parentheses) into years, days, hours, etc.; whatever is most appropriate for the duration being described.
Oh, and compared to table templates for things like the elements, I think that this template should be considered somewhat more flexible. Moons with no atmosphere whatsoever could skip the atmospheric composition section entirely, for example (though atmospheric density would still be listed). Moons also wouldn't have their orbital radii listed in AU, since AUs are such large units. For planets, use "perihelion" and "aphelion" instead of "periapsis" and "apoapsis."
In the case of "number of moons" and "is a moon of", only one of these rows will be used by any given object. There aren't any moons with moons, though perhaps "co-orbital with" might be a useful row to add in a few cases.
A set of colors for use in the 2-column headers of this table:
rocky terrestrial body | Transition metal color from the periodic table; rocky planets have lots of metals compared to the icy ones. Also, red is a "warmer" color than green, which fits the distribution of rocky and icy planets in the solar system. |
---|---|
icy terrestrial body | green contrasts nicely with the pink of rocky planets. Also, on the periodic table, it's the color of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and other common components of outer-solar-system ice. |
gas giant body | blue skies, and noble gases on the periodic table (including helium, which is only found in large quantities on gas giants. It escapes from smaller planets). Also, two out of four gas giants prefer the cool soothing color of blue. |
On the subject of obliquity: Obliquity is the angle between the object's axis of rotation and the normal to the plane of its orbit. Do not confuse this with the Tilt listed in the JPL pages, which is a measure of the angle between the local Laplace plane and the primary's equatorial plane. In fact, most inner moons have synchronous rotations, so their obliquities will be, by definition, zero. Outer moons simply have not been seen from close up enough to determine their true obliquities (although Phoebe, recently seen by the Cassini probe, may be an exception).
Conversion log
Done:
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
- Mars
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Cordelia (work in progress)
- Ophelia (work in progress)
- Bianca (work in progress)
- Cressida (work in progress)
- Desdemona (work in progress)
- Juliet (work in progress)
- Rosalind (work in progress)
- Belinda (work in progress)
- Puck (work in progress)
- Miranda (work in progress)
- Oberon (work in progress)
- Ariel (in progress)
- Neptune
- Pluto
Still to be done:
Usefull sources:
- JPL's SSD, Natural Satellite Physical Parameters
- JPL's SSD, Planetary Satellite Mean Orbital Parameters
- Solarviews
- The Nine Planets
Minor planets (asteroids, comets, Kuiperoids, etc)
This table was taken from the 433 Eros article as a basis for developing a template:
Orbital characteristics | |
---|---|
Orbit type | Near-Earth |
Semimajor axis | 1.45821 AU |
Eccentricity | 0.22290 |
Orbital period | 1.76 years |
Inclination | 10.82948° |
Physical characteristics | |
Diameter | 13×13×33 km |
Mass | 7.2×1015 kg |
Density | 2.4 g/cm3 |
Rotation period | 5h 16m |
Spectral class | S |
Albedo | 0.16 |
History | |
Discoverer | Gustav Witt, 1898 |
Partial list of minor planets with tables:
Here's another table, generated from the {{Minor Planet}} template:
Template:Minor Planet
Stars
Stars with factsheets:
This table was lifted from Betelgeuse and may serve as the basis of a template in the near future.
Observation data | |
---|---|
Semiregular Variable, type SR c | |
Right ascension (RA, α) (J2000,00) | 05 h 55 m 10.29 s |
Declination (Dec, δ) (J2000,00) | +07° 24' 25.3" |
Distance from Earth | 427 ± 92 LY (131 pc) |
Visual brightness (V) | +0.45m (+0.3m to +0.6m (+1.3m)) |
Absolute magnitude | -5.3m to -5.0m |
Physical characteristics | |
Mean Diameter (dS = 1,392,000 km) | 385,000,000 km ~ 276.6 dS 2.57 AU (452 s.u.) |
Surface area | |
Volume | |
Mass | ~ 40 × 1030 kg |
Relative mass to the Sun (mS = 1.9891 × 1030 kg) |
~ 20 mS |
Density | |
Surface gravity | |
Spectral type | M1-2 Ia-Iab (Red Super Giant) |
Surface temperature | 3600 K |
Age | |
Color (B-V) | (1.500) |
V-I | 2.32 |
Luminosity (LS = 3.827 × 1026 J s-1) | ~ 10,000 LS |
Orbital characteristics | |
Period of rotation | |
Period | ~ 2070 d to 2355 d |
Galaxies
Galaxies with factsheets:
- Andromeda Galaxy (M31/NGC 224)
- Bode's Galaxy (M81/NGC 3034) (incomplete)
- M87 (NGC 4486/Virgo A Galaxy)
- Triangulum Galaxy (M33/NGC 598)
Note: Please see List of galaxies or Category:Galaxies for a list of galaxies that do not yet have infoboxes/factsheets.
The following is the M87 table, that may be used (and improved) for other galaxies:
Observation data | |
---|---|
Type | E1 |
Right ascension (RA, α) (J2000,00) | 12 h 30.8 m |
Declination (Dec, δ) (J2000,00) | +12° 24' |
Distance from Earth | 60 millions LY (18.4 Mpc) |
Apparent magnitude (V) | +8.6m |
Apparent dimension(s) (V) | 7.0' |
Physical characteristics | |
Mass (Sun=1) | > 1.0 × 1012 |
Diameter | 120,000 light years |
Color (B-V) | |
Absolute magnitude | -22m |
Peculiarities |
Radio emission |
Other denominations |
NGC 4486 |