juliensimon/jpl-small-body-database

JPL Small-Body Database

Credit: NASA/ESA

Part of a dataset collection on Hugging Face.

Dataset description

Complete catalog of all known asteroids and comets with orbital elements, physical parameters, and discovery metadata. Updated daily from NASA JPL.

The JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB) is the authoritative source for orbital and physical data on all known asteroids, comets, and other small bodies. It is maintained by the Solar System Dynamics group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and continuously updated as new observations refine orbit solutions and new objects are discovered.

This dataset includes orbital elements (osculating Keplerian elements at a reference epoch), physical properties (absolute magnitude, diameter, albedo, spectral type where measured), and metadata (observation arc, number of observations, orbit uncertainty). It covers numbered and unnumbered asteroids, periodic and non-periodic comets.

The six Keplerian orbital elements -- semimajor axis, eccentricity, inclination, longitude of ascending node, argument of perihelion, and mean anomaly -- define each object's instantaneous orbit at the reference epoch. The physical parameters -- absolute magnitude H, diameter, albedo, and spectral type -- are far sparser than the orbital data: fewer than 2% of known asteroids have directly measured diameters. The Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) columns are critical for hazard assessment, measuring the closest possible geometric approach between orbits.

This dataset is suitable for tabular classification, tabular regression tasks.

Schema

Column	Type	Description	Sample	Null %
spkid	Int64	JPL SPK kernel ID; primary unique identifier for this body in all JPL systems (e.g. 2000001 = Ceres)	1000001	0.0%
full_name	str	Full designation including permanent number and name where assigned (e.g. '1 Ceres', '433 Eros', '2024 YR4'); provisional designations follow MPC format	50P/Arend	0.0%
body_type	str	Body type code: 'an' = numbered asteroid, 'au' = unnumbered asteroid, 'cn' = numbered comet, 'cu' = unnumbered comet	cn	0.0%
neo	object	True if orbit comes within 1.3 AU of the Sun (Near-Earth Object); False otherwise; null for some comets	True	0.3%
pha	object	True if potentially hazardous: absolute magnitude H <= 22.0 (roughly >= 140 m diameter) AND Earth MOID <= 0.05 AU; False otherwise	False	2.2%
orbit_class	str	Dynamical orbit class: MBA (Main Belt), APO (Apollo, a>=1 AU, q<1.017 AU), AMO (Amor, 1.017<q<1.3 AU), ATE (Aten, a<1 AU), IEO (Atira, Q<0.983 AU), TNO (trans-Neptunian), COM (comet), and others	JFc	0.0%
eccentricity	float64	Orbital eccentricity: 0 = circular, <1 = elliptical (all bound asteroids), ~1 = parabolic, >1 = hyperbolic; main-belt asteroids typically 0.05-0.35	0.5306	0.0%
semi_major_axis_au	float64	Semi-major axis in AU: main belt 2.0-3.3, NEAs <2.0, TNOs >30, Jupiter Trojans ~5.2; null for some long-period comets with open orbits	4.087	0.1%
inclination_deg	float64	Orbital inclination relative to the ecliptic plane in degrees (0-180); main belt 0-30, retrograde comets >90; high inclination suggests scattered disk or Oort Cloud origin	19.16	0.0%
ascending_node_deg	float64	Longitude of ascending node in degrees (0-360); angle from vernal equinox to where orbit crosses the ecliptic northward; one of the six Keplerian elements	355.31	0.0%
arg_perihelion_deg	float64	Argument of perihelion in degrees (0-360); angle from ascending node to perihelion point; one of the six Keplerian elements	49.04	0.0%
mean_anomaly_deg	float64	Mean anomaly in degrees (0-360) at the reference epoch; angular position in the orbit assuming uniform angular speed; used with other elements to compute position at any time	159.38	0.1%
epoch_jd	float64	Reference epoch of the osculating elements in Julian Date (TDB timescale); typically near the center of the observation arc	2455743.5	0.0%
period_yr	float64	Orbital period in years, derived from semi-major axis via Kepler's third law; null for open (parabolic/hyperbolic) orbits; main belt: 3-6 yr, TNOs: decades	3020.0	0.2%
mean_motion_deg_day	float64	Mean motion in degrees per day, the average angular speed around the Sun; inversely related to orbital period; main belt: ~0.3-1.0 deg/day	0.1193	0.1%
perihelion_time_jd	float64	Time of most recent (or predicted next) perihelion passage in Julian Date (TDB); used for comet position predictions and close-approach timing	2454407.32	0.0%
perihelion_au	float64	Perihelion distance in AU (closest approach to the Sun); NEAs have q < 1.3 AU; sungrazing comets q < 0.01 AU; main belt q ~ 1.5-2.5 AU	1.918	0.0%
aphelion_au	float64	Aphelion distance in AU (farthest point from the Sun); null for open orbits; main belt Q ~ 2.5-4.5 AU; Jupiter-crossing objects Q ~ 5 AU	6.26	0.1%
absolute_magnitude	float64	Absolute magnitude H (brightness at 1 AU from Sun and observer, zero phase angle); size proxy: H=18 ~ 1 km, H=22 ~ 140 m, H=25 ~ 40 m; actual size depends on unknown albedo	11.23	0.3%
diameter_km	float64	Physical diameter in km measured from thermal IR (WISE/NEOWISE), radar, or occultation; null for >98% of objects; range from sub-km to 939 km (Ceres)	1.9	90.8%
geometric_albedo	float64	Geometric albedo: fraction of sunlight reflected at zero phase angle (0-1); S-type (silicate): 0.15-0.35; C-type (carbonaceous): 0.03-0.10; null for most objects	0.028	90.9%
spectral_type_bus	str	Taxonomic class in the Bus-DeMeo (2009) visible/near-IR reflectance system (e.g. S, C, X, B, D, V); null for objects without spectral observations; available for only ~10,000 objects	K	99.9%
spectral_type_tholen	str	Taxonomic class in the Tholen (1984) ECAS broadband photometry system (e.g. S, C, M, E, R, V, D); older classification; null for most objects	G	99.9%
orbit_rms	float64	RMS residual of the orbit fit in arcseconds; measures scatter between predicted and observed astrometric positions; typically <0.5" for well-observed objects	0.69176	0.1%
data_arc_days	Int64	Span of the observation arc in days from first to last used observation; longer arcs produce more reliable orbits; newly discovered objects may have arcs of days	9404	0.2%
n_observations	Int64	Number of individual astrometric observations used in the orbit solution; more observations generally reduce orbital uncertainty	1874	0.0%
condition_code	Int64	JPL orbit uncertainty code 0-9: 0 = well-determined orbit (decades of observations), 9 = very poorly constrained (short arc, few observations)	0	0.2%
moid_au	float64	Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance with Earth in AU; the closest possible geometric approach between the two orbits regardless of current positions; <0.05 AU is the PHA threshold	0.976	2.0%
moid_jupiter_au	float64	Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance with Jupiter in AU; low values indicate dynamical interaction potential; close encounters with Jupiter drive main-belt objects into near-Earth space	0.605	2.0%
first_observation	str	Date of the oldest astrometric observation included in the orbit solution (YYYY-MM-DD)	1999-08-03	0.0%
last_observation	str	Date of the most recent astrometric observation included in the orbit solution (YYYY-MM-DD)	2025-05-02	0.0%

Quick stats

• 1,524,297 small bodies (1,520,236 asteroids, 4,061 comets)
• 41,641 near-Earth objects (NEOs)
• 2,540 potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs)
• 139,688 with measured diameters
• 138,480 with measured albedos

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/jpl-small-body-database", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/jpl-small-body-database", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Near-Earth Objects
neos = df[df["neo"] == True]
print(f"{len(neos):,} NEOs")

# Potentially Hazardous Asteroids close to Earth
phas = df[(df["pha"] == True) & (df["moid_au"] < 0.01)]

# Main Belt asteroids by orbit class
mba = df[df["orbit_class"] == "MBA"]
print(f"{len(mba):,} Main Belt asteroids")

# Orbital element distribution
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 3, figsize=(15, 4))
axes[0].hist(df["semi_major_axis_au"].dropna().clip(0, 6), bins=200)
axes[0].set_xlabel("Semi-major axis (AU)")
axes[1].hist(df["eccentricity"].dropna(), bins=100)
axes[1].set_xlabel("Eccentricity")
axes[2].hist(df["inclination_deg"].dropna().clip(0, 60), bins=100)
axes[2].set_xlabel("Inclination (deg)")
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

Data source

https://ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov/doc/sbdb_query.html

Related datasets

• juliensimon/neo-close-approaches

• juliensimon/sentry-impact-risk

• juliensimon/fireball-bolide-events

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About the author

Created by Julien Simon — AI Operating Partner at Fortino Capital. Part of the Space Datasets collection.

Citation

@dataset{jpl_small_body_database,
  title = {JPL Small-Body Database},
  author = {juliensimon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/jpl-small-body-database},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}

License

CC-BY-4.0