Asteroid and Comet Orbital Data from NASA JPL

NASA's JPL Small-Body Database provides orbital and physical data for all known asteroids and many comets. Discovery circumstances are updated monthly, while physical parameters are updated less frequently. The database is updated daily with newly discovered objects and their orbits.

Use Cases

• Analyze orbital parameters for Near Earth Objects (NEOs) to assess impact risk
• Track discovery circumstances and dates for newly identified asteroids and comets
• Study physical parameter distributions across different small body categories like asteroids and comets

Strengths

• Data is maintained by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a leading authority in space science
• Daily updates incorporate newly discovered objects and their orbits
• Covers all known asteroids and many comets, providing a complete solar system catalog

Limitations

• Physical parameters are updated on a less frequent basis than orbital data
• Specific data volume (row/column counts) and sample data are unavailable for review
• Data is presented in HTML format, which may require parsing for programmatic analysis

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Collection Method

Observational data aggregated and maintained by JPL

Freshness

Updated daily for new objects; discovery circumstances updated monthly; last updated 2025-04-10.

Geography

Solar System