Reference
For history and detail on astorb.dat
and the astorbDB
structure see the astorbDB citation
Lowell Observatory maintains database of asteroid orbital and physical
properties known historically as astorb.dat
. This flat file continues to be maintained and is accessible
at https://asteroid.lowell.edu/main/astorb/. Since 2015, there
has been an ongoing effort to mature the astorb.dat
into a modern relational database. This database, known as
astorbDB
expands the capabilities of the historic flat file and underlies many of the tools on
https://asteroid.lowell.edu/.
Though astorb.dat
will continue to be maintained and accessible, astorbDB
is significantly more
flexible and powerful and is the recommended channel for accessing data. https://asteroid.lowell.edu/ is a good place
to start for querying common data. For example, see AstEph for ephemeris
or AstInfo for physical parameters. A more advanced data query
tool is the QueryBuilder which provides a graphical interface
for querying accross most astorbDB
tables. Finally, for the most advances and programatic use cases, a
GraphQL API is available to perform queries.
For history and detail on astorb.dat
and the astorbDB
structure see the astorbDB citation