Wikipedia

Wikipedia:WikiProject Astronomical objects

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Nickshanks (talk | contribs) at 11:39, 16 September 2004 (→Planets and moons). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.


Planets and moons

Body name
[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
min mean max
nnn K nnn K nnn K
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:

Still to be done:

Planet Template

Earth

The above fields need incorporating into this template.

Useful sources

Minor planets (asteroids, comets, Kuiperoids, etc)

This is the recommended table format for minor planets. Note the recommended unit links. It is generated by the {{Minor Planet}} template. Ask User:Urhixidur for a nifty Windows tool that can greatly facilitate preparation of these.

Template:Minor Planet

Stars

Template

This template needs to be expanded or consolidated with the fields in the table below.

  • Remarks: The Mass, Radius, Luminosity, and Surface Temperature values could be summarized on a single page of Spectral Class derived values. In special cases they could be summarized within the text body. How readily accessible are Age and Rotation period? "Color" or "Colour"? Subjective colors like Orange-red can also be on the Spectral Class page. Separate table for binary systems giving orbital elements?


Other Table

Here's a slightly different table, based on readily-available star catalog information. Probably needs some adjustments, especially for binary and multi-star systems such as Xi Ursae Majoris.

Designation
Constellation Centaurus
Proper name Rigil Kentaurus
Bayer designation Alpha (α) Centauri
Flamsteed designation  
HD 128620
SAO 252838
CD -60° 5483
Gleise 559 A
Hipparcos 71683
HR 5459
LHS 50
Characteristics
Right ascension (2000) 14h 39m 36.5s
Declination (2000) -62° 50' 02.3"
Radial velocity 21.6 km/s
Proper motion 3.710"/yr
Position Angle 277.5°
Parallax 0.74723 ± 0.00117
Distance 4.36 ly
Visual magnitude 0.02
B-V 0.65
U-B 0.24
V-Rc 0.37
R-Ic 0.32
Spectral class G2 V
Rotational velocity  
Companion
Component B
Orbital period 79.92 years
Semi-major axis 17.515"
Eccentricity 0.516
Periastron passage 1955.56
Companion
Component C


Supernovæ

SN 2004dj
II-P
Date2004/07/31.76 UTC
Right ascension07h 37m 17.044s
Declination+65° 35′ 57.84″
EpochJ2000.0
HostNGC 2403
ProgenitorUnknown star in compact
cluster Sandage 96
Progenitor typeUnknown
Colour (B-V)Unknown
Notable featuresNone
Peak apparent magnitude+11.2
[edit on Wikidata]


This is a table template that should be used for supernovæ. It automatically assigns the article to Category:Supernovae.


Globular Clusters

NGC 6656
Object typeWikiProject  
Other designationsMessier 22
Observation data
(Epoch J2000.0)
18h 36m 18s
Declination−23° 53′ 58″
Distance10.4 kly
In visual light (V)
5.1
Size
32.0″
Mass105 to 106 M☉
[edit on Wikidata]

Sample table for M22. Please modify and improve as needed.


Galaxies

This example table should be edited and used for galaxies.

Notes: Please see List of galaxies for a list of galaxies that do not yet have infoboxes/factsheets.
Please categorise your galaxy in a subcategory of Category:Galaxies


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