Virtual Observatory Solar System Portal (VOSSP)

Details: Last Updated: 06 October 2023

Objectives

The Virtual Observatory Solar System Portal (VOSSP) offers the community and the general public online tools dedicated to the bodies of the solar system: databases of dynamic and physical properties, ephemeris calculations (of position, orientation, phenomena, etc).

Identity

Forms : https://ssp.imcce.fr/forms
Web services : https://ssp.imcce.fr/webservices/
National coordination : Jérôme Berthier (IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris)
OCA coordination : Benoit Carry (UMR Lagrange)

Data

SsODNet

SsODNet is a comprehensive information system on the physical and dynamic properties of solar system bodies (Berthier et al. 2023). More than 190 million parameters for over 1.3 million objects are available. Several methods are available:

quaero : a name resolver, containing over 5 million aliases,
dataCloud : all properties with full traceability,
ssoCard : identity cards for each object, containing the best estimates of their parameters,
bft : a huge table containing all the ssoCards.

All these methods are accessible via a simple form, the APIs at the links above, and a dedicated python client: rocks.

M4AST

M4AST provides a database of asteroid reflectance spectra (Popescu et al. 2012), covering the visible and near-infrared wavelength ranges (0.4 to 2.5 microns). M4AST also contains spectra of reference materials (minerals and meteorites) from the RELAB database. These spectra can be accessed via

M4AST dedicated web pages,
TAP requests through VESPA's EPN-TAP services.

Ephemeris

Miriade

Miriade provides a set of calculation methods (Berthier et al. 2008) :

rise-transit-set (rts),
positional ephemeris (ephemcc),
physical ephemeris (ephemph),
satellite ephemeris (ephemsys),
preparation of observations (ViSiON, Carry & Berthier 2018).

All these methods are accessible via the APIs at the links above, or via the portal forms.

SkyBoT

SkyBoT can be used to identify solar system bodies in images (Berthier et al. 2006), using a cone-search method that predicts all known solar system bodies present in a field of view at a specified date. SkyBoT is accessible:

with its dedicated cone-search API
in the Aladin astronomical atlas of the Strasbourg Astronomical Data Centre (CDS).

All our methods for calculating ephemerides comply with Virtual Observatory standards, with results provided in VOTable (or other formats if required by the user).

Analyse

M4AST

M4AST offers a suite of online tools (Popescu et al. 2012) for the analysis of asteroid reflectance spectra, either present in the M4AST database or downloaded by the user:

taxonomic classification,
analysis of absorption bands,
mineralogical analysis,
comparison of spectra with the RELAB library.

Use and impact

All VOSSP services are used by a large international community. Since 2009, the number of requests has continued to grow, exceeding 10 million requests per year in 2016, 100 million in 2020, and 300 million in 2022!

OCA staff involved

Benoit Carry (Astronome adjoint, laboratoire Lagrange, équipe TOP)

Needs + short-term prospects

All the VOSSP tools and methods require constant scientific monitoring (for the data), updating of paradigms (ephemerides), and technical improvements to keep up with the explosion in the number of bodies since the 2000s and soon the commissioning of the LSST survey at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. At the OCA, we are actively involved in scientific monitoring and the development of user interfaces. Our needs over the next few years will therefore be as follows:

Scientific watch : compilation and validation of physical and dynamical data on bodies for SsODNet, and spectra for M4AST,
Development of interfaces : evolution of the rocks library for SsODNet, addition of analysis functions in M4AST (IPAG SSHADE database, Mahlke et al. 2022 taxonomy, etc).

News