Solar System reference data — mean orbital elements (J2000 epoch) and
physical radii, sourced from published NASA JPL / IAU constants. Used to
check the engine and this module's data contract against real astronomy
before anything else gets mapped into it.
These are MEAN elements, not a precision ephemeris: real bodies perturb
each other and drift from these over time. Moons are quoted against the
plane their source publishes them in — the Moon against the ecliptic,
the others against their planet's equator or local Laplace plane (see
jplSatelliteOrbit) — and ringed planets carry their real spin pole, so
moons and rings share one equator. Good enough to check rendering/scale/
LOD, not good enough for real astronomy — the note field flags the
less-precise entries.
Every body's color is its documented apparent colour (Io's sulfur
yellow, Titan's hazy orange, Neptune's deep blue, etc.), not a picked UI
palette. Other datasets typically have no real colour source for
anything and leave color unset instead.
Solar System reference data — mean orbital elements (J2000 epoch) and physical radii, sourced from published NASA JPL / IAU constants. Used to check the engine and this module's data contract against real astronomy before anything else gets mapped into it.
These are MEAN elements, not a precision ephemeris: real bodies perturb each other and drift from these over time. Moons are quoted against the plane their source publishes them in — the Moon against the ecliptic, the others against their planet's equator or local Laplace plane (see jplSatelliteOrbit) — and ringed planets carry their real spin pole, so moons and rings share one equator. Good enough to check rendering/scale/ LOD, not good enough for real astronomy — the
notefield flags the less-precise entries.Every body's
coloris its documented apparent colour (Io's sulfur yellow, Titan's hazy orange, Neptune's deep blue, etc.), not a picked UI palette. Other datasets typically have no real colour source for anything and leavecolorunset instead.