mpcorbfile 1.0.4

Read and write MPCORB files from minor planet center

Read and write MPCORB files from minor planet center.

Features

This package provides a simple interface to read and write MPCORB files from the minor planet center formated as described in https://minorplanetcenter.net/iau/info/MPOrbitFormat.html

Its not provides any kind of orbital calculation, just read and write the files. See Usage for more details.

Reading:

import mpcorbfile

#read MPCORB.DAT download  from:
#https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPCORB/MPCORB.DAT
mpc = mpcorbfile.mpcorb_file('MPCORB.DAT')
#mpc.bodies it's a list of dictionaries with the data
print(f'{mpc.bodies[0]})
{'packed_designation': 'a7943',
'H': 24.19,
'G': 0.15,
'Epoch': datetime.datetime(2025, 5, 5, 0, 0),
'M': 184.7538,
'Peri': 195.63684,
'Node': 146.91033,
'i': 11.6102,
'e': 0.0894684,
'n': 1.13494811,
'a': 0.9102319,
'U': '2',
'Ref': 'E2024-JU2',
'Num_obs': 1055,
'Num_opps': 2,
'Arc_length': '2012-2013',
'rms': 0.36,
'Perturbers': 'M-v',
'Perturbers_2': '3Ek',
'Computer': 'Veres',
'Hex_flags': 2049,
'Number': '(367943)',
'Name': 'Duende',
'Last_obs': '20130221',
'epochJD': 2460800.5,
'designation': '367943',
'discover_date': nan,
'orbit_type': 'NEO;Athen'}

• Free software: MIT license

• Documentation: https://mpcorbfile.readthedocs.io.

Credits

This package was created with Cookiecutter and the audreyr/cookiecutter-pypackage project template.