Milky Way — credits and licenses

Every dataset below was downloaded by the pipeline in tools/ from a pinned source and checked
against its sha256; the retrieval date is 2026-09-23 unless a block says otherwise. Licenses are
quoted from the files and pages named; where a term could only be read through a search summary,
the block says so.


JPL DE430 PLANETARY AND LUNAR EPHEMERIS (DE430.BSP)
Owner: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Solar System Dynamics (W. M. Folkner et al., IPN Progress
Report 42-196, 2014); the SPK's comment block is by C. Acton (NAIF), 2013-09-03
Source: de430.bsp, USGS Astrogeology ISIS data area (public S3 mirror of NAIF generic_kernels,
named in DOI-USGS/ISIS3 isis/config/rclone.conf at commit 51b99bd4); sha256
6e1b277c5f07135a84950604b83e56b736be696a7f3560bcddb1d4aeb944fca1
URL: https://asc-isisdata.s3.amazonaws.com/usgs_data/base/kernels/spk/de430.bsp
License: NAIF/JPL SPICE data, freely available. NAIF's rules page states that SPICE data "are all
freely available ... with no licensing or export restrictions" — read only through a web-search
summary, because naif.jpl.nasa.gov is not reachable from the build machine. JPL is operated by
Caltech; this is not a US-Government public-domain claim.
License text: From the file's own comment block: "DE430 is now considered the official export
lunar/planetary ephemeris, suitable for all users/uses."
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Refitted to a float32 Chebyshev table for 1900-01-01 to 2100-01-01 TDB: heliocentric
Mercury, Venus, Earth-Moon barycenter, Mars and the Jupiter-Pluto system barycenters, and the
geocentric Moon (interval/degree per body in data/ephem.json). The Earth/Moon mass ratio (EMRAT
81.30056907) was measured from the file's own Earth and Moon segments. Pluto is the Pluto-system
barycenter (about 2,135 km from the center of Pluto); Charon is not shown — no long-term Pluto-
satellite ephemeris was reachable.
Accuracy: Max error against DE430 at 20000 random epochs: mercury 20 km, venus 8.5 km, earth 11
km, moon 2.6 km, mars 26 km, jupiter 67 km, saturn 101 km, uranus 169 km, neptune 285 km, pluto
291 km.

JPL MARTIAN SATELLITE EPHEMERIS MAR097 (PHOBOS, DEIMOS)
Owner: MAR097.3, R. A. Jacobson, JPL SSD; release form "Release to: Horizons/NAIF", "Preparer: R.
A. Jacobson"
Source: mar097.bsp, USGS Astrogeology ISIS data area (public S3 mirror of NAIF generic_kernels,
named in DOI-USGS/ISIS3 isis/config/rclone.conf at commit 51b99bd4); sha256
18af4611f536b1bccc07be6bce304b47cf8a829536023972e90097b5cefd902c
URL: https://asc-isisdata.s3.amazonaws.com/usgs_data/base/kernels/spk/mar097.bsp
License: NAIF/JPL SPICE data, freely available. NAIF's rules page states that SPICE data "are all
freely available ... with no licensing or export restrictions" — read only through a web-search
summary, because naif.jpl.nasa.gov is not reachable from the build machine. JPL is operated by
Caltech; this is not a US-Government public-domain claim.
License text: No license text in the file; its release form reads "Release to: Horizons/NAIF"
(NAIF terms as above).
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Positions relative to the planet's center, fitted per window with a precessing
Keplerian ellipse (9 float32 per window, scipy least_squares), 1950-01-01 to 2050-01-01 TDB; the
app adds back the planet center's motion about the system barycenter from the fitted moons and
gm_de440 mass ratios. A fitted model of the JPL ephemeris, labeled as such.
Accuracy: Max error of the position relative to the system barycenter against the SPK at 20000
random epochs per moon: Phobos max 3 km (0.033 % of a), 400 windows of 91.3125 d; Deimos max 14 km
(0.059 % of a), 400 windows of 91.3125 d.

JPL JOVIAN SATELLITE EPHEMERIS JUP310 (IO, EUROPA, GANYMEDE, CALLISTO)
Owner: JUP310.2, R. A. Jacobson, JPL SSD; release form "Release to: Horizons/NAIF/Juno",
"Preparer: R. A. Jacobson"
Source: jup310.bsp, USGS Astrogeology ISIS data area (public S3 mirror of NAIF generic_kernels,
named in DOI-USGS/ISIS3 isis/config/rclone.conf at commit 51b99bd4); sha256
ed64f05431a7da5486f9d00ecff3490213f871c247a293138a798d560fcfdebb
URL: https://asc-isisdata.s3.amazonaws.com/usgs_data/base/kernels/spk/jup310.bsp
License: NAIF/JPL SPICE data, freely available. NAIF's rules page states that SPICE data "are all
freely available ... with no licensing or export restrictions" — read only through a web-search
summary, because naif.jpl.nasa.gov is not reachable from the build machine. JPL is operated by
Caltech; this is not a US-Government public-domain claim.
License text: No license text in the file; its release form reads "Release to: Horizons/NAIF/Juno"
(NAIF terms as above).
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Positions relative to the planet's center, fitted per window with a precessing
Keplerian ellipse (9 float32 per window, scipy least_squares), 1950-01-01 to 2050-01-01 TDB; the
app adds back the planet center's motion about the system barycenter from the fitted moons and
gm_de440 mass ratios. A fitted model of the JPL ephemeris, labeled as such.
Accuracy: Max error of the position relative to the system barycenter against the SPK at 20000
random epochs per moon: Io max 61 km (0.015 % of a), 400 windows of 91.3125 d; Europa max 356 km
(0.053 % of a), 600 windows of 60.875 d; Ganymede max 875 km (0.082 % of a), 600 windows of 60.875
d; Callisto max 306 km (0.016 % of a), 250 windows of 146.1 d.

JPL SATURNIAN SATELLITE EPHEMERIS SAT425 (MIMAS TO IAPETUS) AND ITS RING RADII
Owner: SAT425, R. A. Jacobson, JPL SSD (Saturn global fit); bsp by C. Acton, NAIF: "sat425.bsp was
created on 28 August 2019 by C. Acton. It was created from Bob Jacobson's sat425l.nio file."
Source: sat425.bsp, USGS Astrogeology ISIS data area (public S3 mirror of NAIF generic_kernels,
named in DOI-USGS/ISIS3 isis/config/rclone.conf at commit 51b99bd4); sha256
2120505b93fe2c70f52a399f770a4e75dbb35fb44922ede48a18de71abb2d574
URL: https://asc-isisdata.s3.amazonaws.com/usgs_data/base/kernels/spk/sat425.bsp
License: NAIF/JPL SPICE data, freely available. NAIF's rules page states that SPICE data "are all
freely available ... with no licensing or export restrictions" — read only through a web-search
summary, because naif.jpl.nasa.gov is not reachable from the build machine. JPL is operated by
Caltech; this is not a US-Government public-domain claim.
License text: No license text in the file; its release form reads "Release to: Horizons/NAIF"
(NAIF terms as above).
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Positions relative to the planet's center, fitted per window with a precessing
Keplerian ellipse (9 float32 per window, scipy least_squares), 1950-01-01 to 2050-01-01 TDB; the
app adds back the planet center's motion about the system barycenter from the fitted moons and
gm_de440 mass ratios. A fitted model of the JPL ephemeris, labeled as such. Also the Saturn C, B
and A ring radii from the header's "Additional Constants" (C_ring_RI ... A_ring_RO), copied as
they are.
Accuracy: Max error of the position relative to the system barycenter against the SPK at 20000
random epochs per moon: Mimas max 81 km (0.044 % of a), 1000 windows of 36.525 d; Enceladus max 38
km (0.016 % of a), 400 windows of 91.3125 d; Tethys max 79 km (0.027 % of a), 400 windows of
91.3125 d; Dione max 95 km (0.025 % of a), 250 windows of 146.1 d; Rhea max 151 km (0.029 % of a),
250 windows of 146.1 d; Titan max 40 km (0.003 % of a), 250 windows of 146.1 d; Hyperion max 1267
km (0.086 % of a), 3000 windows of 12.175 d; Iapetus max 840 km (0.024 % of a), 250 windows of
146.1 d.

JPL URANIAN SATELLITE EPHEMERIS URA111 (MIRANDA, ARIEL, UMBRIEL, TITANIA, OBERON)
Owner: URA111, R. A. Jacobson, JPL SSD; release form "Fit of the major Uranian satellites and Puck
to Voyager and ..." (Puck is not in the SPK)
Source: ura111.bsp, USGS Astrogeology ISIS data area (public S3 mirror of NAIF generic_kernels,
named in DOI-USGS/ISIS3 isis/config/rclone.conf at commit 51b99bd4); sha256
384647ab7fdc085eb573926a8db6326748518d4ad600d5ca6bdaa06f9c0d7bdc
URL: https://asc-isisdata.s3.amazonaws.com/usgs_data/base/kernels/spk/ura111.bsp
License: NAIF/JPL SPICE data, freely available. NAIF's rules page states that SPICE data "are all
freely available ... with no licensing or export restrictions" — read only through a web-search
summary, because naif.jpl.nasa.gov is not reachable from the build machine. JPL is operated by
Caltech; this is not a US-Government public-domain claim.
License text: No license text in the file; its release form reads "Release to: Horizons/NAIF"
(NAIF terms as above).
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Positions relative to the planet's center, fitted per window with a precessing
Keplerian ellipse (9 float32 per window, scipy least_squares), 1950-01-01 to 2050-01-01 TDB; the
app adds back the planet center's motion about the system barycenter from the fitted moons and
gm_de440 mass ratios. A fitted model of the JPL ephemeris, labeled as such.
Accuracy: Max error of the position relative to the system barycenter against the SPK at 20000
random epochs per moon: Ariel max 85 km (0.044 % of a), 250 windows of 146.1 d; Umbriel max 362 km
(0.136 % of a), 1000 windows of 36.525 d; Titania max 871 km (0.200 % of a), 1000 windows of
36.525 d; Oberon max 937 km (0.161 % of a), 1000 windows of 36.525 d; Miranda max 58 km (0.044 %
of a), 250 windows of 146.1 d.

JPL NEPTUNIAN SATELLITE EPHEMERIS NEP081 (TRITON, NEREID)
Owner: NEP081, R. A. Jacobson (Astron. J. 137, 4322, 2009), JPL SSD
Source: nep081.bsp, USGS Astrogeology ISIS data area (public S3 mirror of NAIF generic_kernels,
named in DOI-USGS/ISIS3 isis/config/rclone.conf at commit 51b99bd4); sha256
a304baf7e6d853d41a44bea80ea0fb9a0a7e11239d057f618f683602fa8e49cb
URL: https://asc-isisdata.s3.amazonaws.com/usgs_data/base/kernels/spk/nep081.bsp
License: NAIF/JPL SPICE data, freely available. NAIF's rules page states that SPICE data "are all
freely available ... with no licensing or export restrictions" — read only through a web-search
summary, because naif.jpl.nasa.gov is not reachable from the build machine. JPL is operated by
Caltech; this is not a US-Government public-domain claim.
License text: No license text in the file; its release form reads "Release to: Horizons/NAIF"
(NAIF terms as above).
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Positions relative to the planet's center, fitted per window with a precessing
Keplerian ellipse (9 float32 per window, scipy least_squares), 1950-01-01 to 2050-01-01 TDB; the
app adds back the planet center's motion about the system barycenter from the fitted moons and
gm_de440 mass ratios. A fitted model of the JPL ephemeris, labeled as such.
Accuracy: Max error of the position relative to the system barycenter against the SPK at 20000
random epochs per moon: Triton max 3 km (0.001 % of a), 250 windows of 146.1 d; Nereid max 369 km
(0.007 % of a), 250 windows of 146.1 d.

NAIF GENERIC TEXT PCK PCK00011.TPC (IAU WGCCRE 2015 ROTATION AND SHAPE CONSTANTS)
Owner: NASA JPL NAIF (N. Bachman, 2022-12-27), from Archinal et al. 2018, Celest. Mech. Dyn. Astr.
130:22 (IAU WGCCRE 2015 report) and the other sources listed in the file
Source: pck00011.tpc from the nyx-space/anise repository at commit
a3aff9db1f6c92cd83d9fef70e8912993a4bff57 (a byte-identical copy is in a second, unrelated
repository; NAIF's own site is not reachable from the build machine, so there is no NAIF checksum
to compare); sha256 3dff7b1dbeceaa01f25467767d3fa25816051c85d162d1edf04acb310ee28bb1
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nyx-
space/anise/a3aff9db1f6c92cd83d9fef70e8912993a4bff57/data/pck00011.tpc
License: NAIF/JPL SPICE data, freely available. NAIF's rules page states that SPICE data "are all
freely available ... with no licensing or export restrictions" — read only through a web-search
summary, because naif.jpl.nasa.gov is not reachable from the build machine. JPL is operated by
Caltech; this is not a US-Government public-domain claim. The anise repository's MPL-2.0 covers
its code, not this file.
License text: From the file: "Note that this file may be readily modified by you to change values
or add/delete parameters. NAIF requests that you update the "by line," date, version description
section, and file name if you modify this file." (It is not modified; values are copied into
physical.json.)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Radii, pole and prime-meridian polynomials and nutation/precession series for the
Sun, planets, Moon, Pluto and the shipped moons, read through CSPICE N0067 (spiceypy 8.2.0).
Derived: obliquity against the osculating J2000 orbit and the sidereal period from the prime-
meridian rate. Also used for the moons' fit frames (planet spin axes at J2000).
Accuracy: Constants copied exactly (compared with the CSPICE kernel pool by verify_solar.py). The
body-fixed frames built from physical.json by js/rotation.js are checked against CSPICE
pxform('J2000', 'IAU_<BODY>') for 30 bodies at 7 epochs 1950-2100 (tools/test_rotation.mjs, limit
0.001 arcsec).

GM_DE440.TPC (GM OF THE SUN, PLANETS AND SATELLITES)
Owner: JPL SSD (J. Giorgini; DE440 values from Park et al. 2021, AJ 161:105; satellite release
forms), edited by NAIF (BVS, 2022-12-14)
Source: gm_de440.tpc from the nyx-space/anise repository at commit
a3aff9db1f6c92cd83d9fef70e8912993a4bff57; sha256
924ddf4fb9ead9fe8a1aa55780bcabde40b09d00065d58226e24b68d8092f140
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nyx-
space/anise/a3aff9db1f6c92cd83d9fef70e8912993a4bff57/data/gm_de440.tpc
License: NAIF/JPL SPICE data, freely available. NAIF's rules page states that SPICE data "are all
freely available ... with no licensing or export restrictions" — read only through a web-search
summary, because naif.jpl.nasa.gov is not reachable from the build machine. JPL is operated by
Caltech; this is not a US-Government public-domain claim.
License text: No license text in the file. Its header: "Sources: 1. DE-440 NAVIO file "ASTRO-
VALUES" ... 2. Natural satellite file release forms".
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: GM values copied into physical.json; moon/system mass ratios in moons.json.
Accuracy: Copied exactly.

ERFA (ESSENTIAL ROUTINES FOR FUNDAMENTAL ASTRONOMY), FROM THE PYERFA 2.0.1.5 SDIST
Owner: NumFOCUS Foundation (ERFA, derived with permission from the IAU SOFA library)
Source: pyerfa-2.0.1.5.tar.gz from PyPI, sha256
17d6b24fe4846c65d5e7d8c362dcb08199dc63b30a236aedd73875cc83e1f6c0: liberfa/erfa/src/dat.c (leap
seconds), src/obl06.c (IAU 2006 mean obliquity at J2000), src/erfam.h (TT - TAI)
URL: https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/71/39/63cc8291b0cf324ae710df41527faf7d331bce573899199
d926b3e492260/pyerfa-2.0.1.5.tar.gz
License: BSD 3-clause (liberfa/erfa/LICENSE)
License text: "Copyright (C) 2013-2021, NumFOCUS Foundation. All rights reserved." ...
"Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted
provided that the following conditions are met"
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: TAI-UTC steps from 1972 on as [JD UTC, seconds]; eps0 = 84381.406 arcsec; TT - TAI =
32.184 s. The 1960-1971 drift rows are not used (the app takes 10 s before 1972).
Accuracy: Copied exactly. dat.c release year 2023; last step 2017-01-01 (37 s).

ASTRONOMICAL UNIT, IAU 2012 RESOLUTION B2 (ASTROPY CONSTANTS)
Owner: The Astropy Project (value: IAU 2012 Resolution B2)
Source: astropy/constants/iau2012.py at tag v7.1.0 (commit
8f2535d08a6e496134c6d3f63d5fcae67ded35dc), sha256
66b73e243bac684a661ea59862785e3834488f4916a95fbe51a01d1cffaeb061
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/astropy/astropy/8f2535d08a6e496134c6d3f63d5fcae67ded35dc/as
tropy/constants/iau2012.py
License: BSD 3-clause (astropy)
License text: File header: "# Licensed under a 3-clause BSD style license - see LICENSE.rst"
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: au = 1.49597870700e11 m, written as 149597870.7 km.
Accuracy: Exact (a defined constant).

URANIAN RING ELEMENTS (PDS RING-MOON SYSTEMS NODE CONSTANTS, FRENCH ET AL. 1991)
Owner: PDS Ring-Moon Systems Node, SETI Institute (rms-oops); values adapted, per the source, from
the tabulated elements of French et al. 1991
Source: SETI/rms-oops src/oops/body.py at commit 46b01e291102423df97a3a970abb4b9e3f312f4f, sha256
dc6b20924e69821bc8c6d4a5805f259ab07b0f4edbce388398511ab2427bd281
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SETI/rms-
oops/46b01e291102423df97a3a970abb4b9e3f312f4f/src/oops/body.py
License: Apache License 2.0 (the repository's LICENSE.md; the numbers themselves are published
measurements)
License text: LICENSE.md: "Apache License ... Version 2.0, January 2004"; body.py: "# Local
function to adapt the tabulated elements from French et al. 1991."
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Semi-major axis, eccentricity and radial width of the ten rings; drawn as circles a
-/+ width/2 in Uranus's equatorial plane. Pericenter and node longitudes (epoch 1977-03-10T20:00
UTC, B1950-based ring frame in rms-oops) are not shipped.
Accuracy: Copied exactly; the circular drawing ignores e (up to 406 km for the epsilon ring).

JPL SMALL-BODY DATABASE: EVERY ASTEROID AND TNO WITH H < 12
Owner: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Solar System Dynamics group (Small-Body Database)
Source: kstars/data/asteroids.dat in the KDE KStars repository at commit
182b27aba4726a79f75fd1ffcd3e5d52d09f2450 (2026-04-04), sha256
dc39954ecc89f1062f07665ac3b6d10eb5a43a4a4b578947f60c2f161fdc45c2: a verbatim response of JPL's
SBDB Query API ("NASA/JPL SBDB (Small-Body DataBase) Query API" v1.0) to KStars' query for H < 12
with full-precision elements. KStars' README.ephemerides: "KStars keeps track of thousands of
comets and asteroids. It uses orbital data published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL);
these data are known as "orbital elements"."
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KDE/kstars/182b27aba4726a79f75fd1ffcd3e5d52d09f2450/kstars/
data/asteroids.dat
License: No license could be read: ssd.jpl.nasa.gov is not reachable from the build machine, and
the research pass found only a web-search summary of catalog.data.gov ("No license information was
provided"). JPL is operated by Caltech, so this is not claimed to be a US-Government public-domain
work. Credited as NASA/JPL Solar System Dynamics with the retrieval date. The copy read here sits
in KStars (GPL-2.0-or-later at project level; kstars/data/ has no file-level license); only the
numbers are used, in a new format.
License text: KStars README.md: "KStars is Free Software, released under the GNU Public License."
The data file itself carries no license.
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: 9,032 rows read; 9,028 kept. Dropped: 134340 Pluto (1930 BM) — Pluto (drawn from
DE430 instead); (2002 PD153) — e = 0 placeholder orbit with no mean anomaly; (A/2018 W3), (A/2024
U2) — in the MPC comet list at a newer epoch (kept from there). Heliocentric ecliptic J2000
elements (a, e, i, node, peri, M at the epoch) turned into perihelion distance, time of perihelion
(from M and the mean motion k/a^1.5) and two ICRF unit vectors; stored as float32 (time as
float64). Kinds from SBDB's orbit class (MBA/IMB/OMB shown as main belt; SBDB has no Hungaria or
Hilda group); the bodies Celestia's dwarfplanets.ssc groups as dwarf planets (Ceres, Orcus,
Haumea, Quaoar, Makemake, Gonggong, Eris, Sedna) as kind dwarf. Names without the provisional
designation for named numbered asteroids. 2,351 orbits are flagged weak (e < 0.001, or orbit
solution JPL 1/JPL 2 — a proxy, the snapshot has no arc length or condition code) and kept.
Diameters, albedos and rotation periods as given.
Accuracy: Two-body propagation of osculating elements, epoch 2025-11-21 for 7,501 rows, older for
the rest (per row in the file). Against JPL Horizons' own osculating elements of Ceres, Pallas,
Juno and Vesta, 1900-2100: 8.2e-06 AU 49 days from the epoch; worst of the four by years from the
epoch: 0-1 yr 0.00034 AU, 1-5 yr 0.017 AU, 5-10 yr 0.054 AU, 10-25 yr 0.12 AU, 25-50 yr 0.29 AU,
50-75 yr 0.32 AU, 75-125 yr 0.54 AU (Vesta, the least perturbed, within 0.075 AU). Pluto's SBDB
elements against DE430: 0-1 yr 0.001 AU, 1-5 yr 0.015 AU, 5-10 yr 0.037 AU, 10-25 yr 0.088 AU,
25-50 yr 0.220 AU, 50-75 yr 0.381 AU, 75-125 yr 0.449 AU.

JPL SMALL-BODY DATABASE LOOKUP RESPONSES: NAMED NEAR-EARTH ASTEROIDS AND CITED SIZES
Owner: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Solar System Dynamics group (SBDB); physical values as
referenced per value in each response
Source: JSON responses of the SBDB lookup API ("NASA/JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB) API" v1.3)
kept as test fixtures in the B612 Asteroid Institute adam_core repository at commit
8fb48119f2c3e99d4bfe7165387c9affe0f829f4 (src/adam_core/orbits/query/tests/testdata/sbdb/). Their
README: "Sample JSON responses from the JPL SBDB lookup API." Files: 99942_phys.json
a686afe50ca3f749…, 2024YR4_phys.json 25d385e30fafb44f…, 2022AP7_phys.json e30d58592cb248b0…,
25143_phys.json 2f637f340566685b…, 54509.json ee60f48e635d9387…, 1_phys.json cd5dc3161c6a2042…,
101955_phys.json 19c0771a7be54f83…, 2_phys.json adcebf75edbfc28d…, 3_phys.json 8f3e9bbab92afb8a…,
4_phys.json 9fd4648840b1c951…, 433_phys.json 772ce4499ff24ad5…
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/B612-Asteroid-Institute/adam_core/8fb48119f2c3e99d4bfe71653
87c9affe0f829f4/src/adam_core/orbits/query/tests/testdata/sbdb/99942_phys.json
License: JPL terms as above (not readable from here). The container repository is MIT: "Permission
is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy"
License text: adam_core LICENSE.md: "The MIT License (MIT) … Permission is hereby granted, free of
charge, to any person obtaining a copy …"
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Orbits of 99942 Apophis, 2024 YR4, 2022 AP7, 25143 Itokawa and 54509 YORP at each
response's epoch, converted as above. Diameter, albedo and rotation period with SBDB's per-value
references for those and for Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta, Eros and Bennu (replacing the snapshot's
uncited values for those six).
Accuracy: Elements copied at full precision; the time of perihelion each response gives and the
one computed here from its mean anomaly and k are the same float64 number for all five.

JPL HORIZONS: OSCULATING ELEMENTS OF 101955 BENNU AT 2024-01-01 TDB
Owner: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Solar System Dynamics group (Horizons); trajectory
sb-101955-118_long, Farnocchia et al. (2021), doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2021.114594 (as the response
cites it)
Source: A recorded Horizons API response in the B612 Asteroid Institute adam_core repository at
commit 8fb48119f2c3e99d4bfe7165387c9affe0f829f4
(src/adam_core/orbits/query/tests/data/horizons/elements_bennu_20240101.txt, sha256
46de73ce09f2a8ec0e7c625d40a537339d185dce92db85bca39ebd33f9ecd870). Its README: "These verbatim
service responses gate deterministic Rust parsing". The response states its frame: "IAU76
obliquity of 84381.448 arcseconds wrt ICRF X-Y plane".
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/B612-Asteroid-Institute/adam_core/8fb48119f2c3e99d4bfe71653
87c9affe0f829f4/src/adam_core/orbits/query/tests/data/horizons/elements_bennu_20240101.txt
License: JPL terms as above (not readable from here); container repository MIT.
License text: adam_core LICENSE.md: "Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
obtaining a copy"
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Used instead of the SBDB lookup fixture for Bennu, whose elements are at a 2011
epoch. Also the source of the obliquity used for every row.
Accuracy: Elements copied at full precision (osculating at 2024-01-01).

ESA NEO COORDINATION CENTRE ORBITS OF 162173 RYUGU AND 65803 DIDYMOS
Owner: European Space Agency, NEO Coordination Centre (Planetary Defence Office)
Source: OEF 2.0 orbit files 162173.ke1 and 65803.ke1 (present-day epoch, ECLM J2000) kept as test
fixtures in the B612 Asteroid Institute adam_core repository at commit
8fb48119f2c3e99d4bfe7165387c9affe0f829f4. Their README: "Sample OEF files from ESA NEOCC (per-
object orbit download)." The files give numbers only; the names are from Stellarium's
ssystem_minor.ini (Ryugu, 1999 JU3) and Celestia's asteroids.ssc (Didymos, 1996 GT) — see the
planetarium block.
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/B612-Asteroid-Institute/adam_core/8fb48119f2c3e99d4bfe71653
87c9affe0f829f4/src/adam_core/orbits/query/tests/testdata/neocc/162173.ke1
License: ESA NEOCC's data-use terms could not be read (neo.ssa.esa.int is not reachable from the
build machine; a web-search summary said the NEOCC "encourages you to make use of these data").
Credited as ESA NEOCC. Container repository MIT.
License text: adam_core LICENSE.md: "Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
obtaining a copy"
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Elements at MJD 61000 TDT converted as above; H is NEOCC's MAG value.
Accuracy: NEOCC's own 433 Eros file (433.ke1, same fixtures) and JPL's Eros response at the same
epoch put Eros 1.4e-07 AU apart: the same ecliptic frame. Two-body propagation from MJD 61000
(2025-11-21).

MINOR PLANET CENTER COMET ORBITS (COMETELS.JSON)
Owner: Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (IAU)
Source: kstars/data/cometels.json.gz in the KDE KStars repository at commit
182b27aba4726a79f75fd1ffcd3e5d52d09f2450, sha256
cbebd1097b244455c7ff8dcd702ff73ffeb45f9f2cdfb0eb218886385f8fab11: the MPC's
Extended_Files/cometels.json.gz as downloaded by KStars (cometscomponent.cpp). Each row carries
its MPC reference (MPC/MPEC).
URL: https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/Extended_Files/cometels.json.gz
License: "Data from the MPC's database is made freely available to the public." (MPC FAQ).
Citation policy: "Users of any of these lists are reminded that the source of the data is the
Minor Planet Center. The relevant URL should be cited, along with a reference to the MPC itself."
(MPC Lists and Plots page; stated for those lists, applied here to the comet file too). Both read
from the MPC's own documentation repository Smithsonian/mpc-public at commit
af7756cf072339846be18516eae8f03488132b8e. The copy read here sits in KStars (GPL-2.0-or-later at
project level).
License text: "Data from the MPC's database is made freely available to the public."
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: All 947 comets, A/ objects and interstellar objects; perihelion time and epoch from
calendar dates (TT); the backtick the MPC uses for the okina in 1I/ʻOumuamua shown as ʻ. H is the
MPC's comet magnitude parameter. Diameters (and albedo, rotation, extent where given) joined from
JPL's 2021 comet export by designation, for the comets it lists them for.
Accuracy: Two-body propagation from epoch 2026-04-03. Halley's elements propagated back to JPL's
1994 solution are 0.07 AU off at r = 18.9 AU and put the 1986 perihelion +13 days from JPL's.

JPL SMALL-BODY DATABASE COMET EXPORT (SIX FAMOUS COMETS AND COMET SIZES)
Owner: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Solar System Dynamics group (Small-Body Database)
Source: kstars/data/comets.dat in the KDE KStars repository at commit
182b27aba4726a79f75fd1ffcd3e5d52d09f2450, sha256
e856704306967d9c8f8dcaed7cbf4039f8209f3d07bc15a263fd4217cd937e4c: an SBDB Query API response last
updated in KStars in October 2021.
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KDE/kstars/182b27aba4726a79f75fd1ffcd3e5d52d09f2450/kstars/
data/comets.dat
License: No license could be read: ssd.jpl.nasa.gov is not reachable from the build machine, and
the research pass found only a web-search summary of catalog.data.gov ("No license information was
provided"). JPL is operated by Caltech, so this is not claimed to be a US-Government public-domain
work. Credited as NASA/JPL Solar System Dynamics with the retrieval date. The copy read here sits
in KStars (GPL-2.0-or-later at project level; kstars/data/ has no file-level license); only the
numbers are used, in a new format.
License text: KStars README.md: "KStars is Free Software, released under the GNU Public License."
The data file itself carries no license.
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Orbits of 109P/Swift-Tuttle, 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake), C/2020 F3
(NEOWISE), C/2006 P1 (McNaught), C/1965 S1-A (Ikeya-Seki) — famous comets the MPC list no longer
carries (an editorial choice; the numbers are the file's). Shoemaker-Levy 9 is left out: its
fragments orbited Jupiter, so heliocentric elements do not describe their path. Also the diameter,
extent, albedo and rotation period of MPC comets, joined by designation.
Accuracy: Two-body propagation from each comet's own epoch (1965-2020); far from it they are
approximate.

STELLARIUM AND CELESTIA CATALOGS (DWARF-PLANET GROUPING, TWO NAMES; ACCURACY CHECKS)
Owner: The Stellarium developers; the Celestia project (CelestiaContent contributors)
Source: Stellarium data/ssystem_minor.ini at commit 450dbc0fcb81593f930371a165013f2a1b255f4f (the
name of 162173 Ryugu) and data/asteroid_elements.json (JPL Horizons yearly osculating elements of
Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta, 1800-2100, generated by Stellarium's fetch_asteroid_elements.py —
used only to measure the accuracy above, not shipped); CelestiaContent data/dwarfplanets.ssc
(which bodies are grouped as dwarf planets) and data/asteroids.ssc (the name of 65803 Didymos) at
commit eab93932c85fa315f370477ee8c6b7e15f12c327.
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Stellarium/stellarium/450dbc0fcb81593f930371a165013f2a1b255
f4f/data/ssystem_minor.ini
License: GNU GPL (Stellarium's COPYING is "GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2, June 1991";
Celestia's dwarfplanets.ssc and asteroids.ssc: "SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later"). Only
facts are taken (a grouping and two names); no file is redistributed.
License text: "GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2, June 1991"; "SPDX-License-Identifier:
GPL-2.0-or-later"
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Nothing shipped beyond the kind of eight rows and two names. Stellarium types only
Eris, Haumea, Makemake as "dwarf planet" and Ceres as "asteroid"; Celestia's grouping is the one
used, and the file says so (dwarf_note).
Accuracy: Horizons elements used as the reference for the drift figures in the JPL SBDB block.

SUN: SDO HMI CONTINUUM MAP (STELLARIUM SUN.WEBP)
Owner: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory, HMI (data); map by Ruslan Kabatsayev for Stellarium
(commit 2aa98a95, 2025-09-15)
Source: Stellarium textures/sun.webp at commit 9910a2f0 (8192x4096 WebP, sha256 a1fc496b...)
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Stellarium/stellarium/9910a2f05c52d4d9f351ff490c9bc4d99670d
f1f/textures/sun.webp
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
License text: Stellarium CREDITS.md section 4.3o: "The Sun map was created by Ruslan Kabatsayev
from the images taken by SDO HMI. The map is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International license."
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Averaged 8x8 in linear light to 1024x512; the intensity is kept and Stellarium's
uniform warm tint is replaced by the TSIS-1 solar color (sRGB [255, 244, 241]); JPEG quality 85.
The adapted map data/tex/sun.jpg is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Accuracy: A generic texture, per its commit message: sunspots from HMI images of 2025-08-07 to
08-31, the rest spotless data of 2019-12-15, each image used only in the central 60 % of the disk;
limb darkening removed; no Carrington registration, so longitudes carry no meaning. The source is
monochrome HMI 617 nm continuum data; the color is the measured TSIS-1 color, not HMI's.

MERCURY: MESSENGER MDIS GLOBAL MOSAIC 250 M (MAY 2013)
Owner: NASA MESSENGER mission; mosaic by Arizona State University, MESSENGER Team (FGDC
originator); distributed by USGS Astrogeology
Source: USGS Astrogeology public bucket asc-pds-services,
mosaic/Mercury_MESSENGER_mosaic_global_250m_2013.tif (1,880,562,441 bytes, sha256
720938d9a403803b..., md5 7f6dedc9aaf69ccedd678bf9e3163f17 = the USGS sidecar), with its ISIS label
Mercury_MESSENGER_mosaic_global_250m_2013.lbl
URL: https://asc-pds-
services.s3.amazonaws.com/mosaic/Mercury_MESSENGER_mosaic_global_250m_2013.tif
License: Public domain (USGS FGDC access constraint; use constraint "Please cite authors")
License text: USGS FGDC record mercury_messenger_mdis_global_mosaic_250m.xml: <accconst>Public
domain</accconst> <useconst>Please cite authors</useconst>; edition "May 2013"
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Monochrome 750 nm basemap (NAC and WAC images; polar mosaics by C. Ernst and N.
Chabot, per the FGDC abstract). Area-averaged (every source pixel counted once, nodata excluded)
to 1024x512, east-positive, left edge -180 deg (ISIS label: PositiveEast, CenterLongitude 0,
-180..180; GeoTIFF central_meridian 0); JPEG quality 85.
Accuracy: Mixed illumination (shading is part of the mosaic); a lit globe gets mild double
shading.

VENUS: MAGELLAN C3-MIDR GLOBAL RADAR MOSAIC 2025 M
Owner: NASA/JPL Magellan mission; PDS Geosciences Node (FGDC originator); mosaic by USGS
Astrogeology
Source: USGS Astrogeology public bucket asc-pds-services,
mosaic/Venus_Magellan_C3-MDIR_Global_Mosaic_2025m.tif (176,335,453 bytes, sha256
833d5368564b626a..., md5 f9b317ff09fec5812f5aa38618a7e1a7 = the USGS sidecar), with its ISIS label
Venus_Magellan_C3-MDIR_Global_Mosaic_2025m.lbl
URL: https://asc-pds-
services.s3.amazonaws.com/mosaic/Venus_Magellan_C3-MDIR_Global_Mosaic_2025m.tif
License: Public domain (USGS FGDC access constraint)
License text: USGS FGDC record venus_magellan_global_c3_mdir_mosaic_2025m.xml: <accconst>public
domain</accconst> <useconst>None</useconst>
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: S-band synthetic-aperture radar backscatter. Area-averaged (every source pixel
counted once, nodata excluded) to 1024x512, east-positive, left edge -180 deg (ISIS label:
PositiveEast, CenterLongitude 0, -180..180; GeoTIFF central_meridian 0); JPEG quality 85. 7.0 % of
the pixels had no data: flat DN 129 (mean of the imaged pixels) in Magellan's swath gaps and polar
holes.
Accuracy: Radar brightness of the surface under the clouds, not what an eye sees: the visible
Venus is a nearly featureless cloud deck, and no Venus color or cloud map could be sourced.

EARTH: NASA BLUE MARBLE NEXT GENERATION, MAY 2004 (TOPOGRAPHY AND BATHYMETRY)
Owner: NASA Earth Observatory / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Reto Stöckli), from Terra MODIS
Source: NASAWorldWind/WebWorldWind images/BMNG_world.topo.bathy.200405.3.2048x1024.jpg at commit
5ffe2dfc (sha256 7405c39a...), the file WebWorldWind's BMNGOneImageLayer drapes on the full sphere
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NASAWorldWind/WebWorldWind/5ffe2dfc54ab4d744fc9e587af9639c9
910db228/images/BMNG_world.topo.bathy.200405.3.2048x1024.jpg
License: Public domain (NASA). WebWorldWind carries no license text for the image itself; KDE
Marble labels its copy of the same Blue Marble product "NASA / Public Domain", and the Earth
Observatory terms quoted in Stellarium's CREDITS.md make its material freely reusable.
License text: KDE Marble data/maps/earth/bluemarble/bluemarble.dgml @600d542e: <license
short="NASA / Public Domain">Source: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble, License: Public Domain</license>; Stellarium
CREDITS.md (Blue Marble, Reto Stockli): "Any and all materials published on the Earth Observatory
are freely available for re-publication or re-use, except where copyright is indicated."
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: None: shipped byte for byte (2048x1024, left edge -180).
Accuracy: Cloud-free monthly composite; its colors agree with an independent BMNG copy (PyPI
basemap-data) to a mean 7 DN (research verifier). No clouds are shown: no clean real cloud map was
found.

EARTH AT NIGHT: EARTH'S CITY LIGHTS (DMSP-OLS), KDE MARBLE COPY
Owner: Marc Imhoff (NASA GSFC), Christopher Elvidge (NOAA NGDC), Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon
(NASA GSFC)
Source: KDE/marble data/maps/earth/citylights/citylights.jpg at commit 600d542e (2700x1350, sha256
c79ca569...)
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KDE/marble/600d542e8de95716864f3278f2a4110cb54cb012/data/ma
ps/earth/citylights/citylights.jpg
License: Public domain (as labeled in KDE Marble's citylights.dgml)
License text: citylights.dgml @600d542e: <license short="NOAA NGDC, NASA / Public Domain">Source:
Marc Imhoff of NASA GSFC; Christopher Elvidge of NOAA NGDC; Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon, NASA
GSFC, License: Public Domain</license>
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Box-filtered 2700x1350 -> 2048x1024 (PIL BOX), JPEG quality 85. The dgml gives no
bounds; the left edge -180 is proved by registering the map's own land/ocean base against the Blue
Marble (best shift 0, not mirrored) and by the positions of Tokyo, New York, Moscow, Cairo, Paris
and Sao Paulo (verify_textures_sky.py).
Accuracy: DMSP satellite data of about 2000, composited over a dark land and ocean base (not a
pure emission layer).

MOON: LROC WAC HAPKE-NORMALIZED ALBEDO MAP (STELLARIUM MOON_4K.JPG)
Owner: NASA LRO / LROC team, Arizona State University (data); map by Ruslan Kabatsayev for
Stellarium (commit ef231c69, 2026-03-13)
Source: Stellarium textures/moon_4k.jpg at commit 9910a2f0 (4096x2048, sha256 ad4435c7...)
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Stellarium/stellarium/9910a2f05c52d4d9f351ff490c9bc4d99670d
f1f/textures/moon_4k.jpg
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
License text: Stellarium CREDITS.md section 4.2: "Moon albedo map was generated by Ruslan
Kabatsayev from Hapke-normalized LROC WAC data for visible-light wavelengths, plus empirically-
normalized data for 643 nm to cover the polar areas. The spectra were converted to linear sRGB,
then scaled up by a factor of 4, and then the sRGB inverse transfer function was applied. The
polar areas, being monochromatic in the original data set, were colored using a fit to the
equatorial sectors. After this the image was color-balanced to yield the grayish look of the
texture instead of the natural beige color of the lunar surface. The map is under the Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license."
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Averaged 2x2 to 2048x1024, JPEG quality 85. The adapted map data/tex/moon.jpg is
shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Accuracy: Albedo with shading removed (suits the app's own lighting). Disclosed processing that is
not measurement: brightness x4, polar color fitted from the equatorial sectors, and color balanced
to gray instead of the natural beige. Longitude convention proved by Tycho, Mare Humorum and the
maria/highlands asymmetry.

MARS: VIKING ORBITER GLOBAL COLOR MOSAIC 925 M
Owner: NASA Viking Orbiter; Planetary Data System (FGDC originator); USGS Astrogeology
Source: USGS Astrogeology public bucket asc-pds-services,
mosaic/Mars_Viking_ClrMosaic_global_925m.tif (797,888,177 bytes, sha256 5b3c6bea36cec0ec..., md5
a0e0bbf33ecb0ff65ece9cfa8e08813e = the USGS sidecar), with its ISIS label
Mars_Viking_ClrMosaic_global_925m.lbl
URL: https://asc-pds-services.s3.amazonaws.com/mosaic/Mars_Viking_ClrMosaic_global_925m.tif
License: Public domain (USGS FGDC access constraint)
License text: USGS FGDC record mars_viking_global_color_mosaic_925m.xml: <accconst>public
domain</accconst> <useconst>None</useconst>
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: About 1000 red- and violet-filter images, Minnaert-normalized and haze-corrected
(FGDC abstract). Area-averaged (every source pixel counted once, nodata excluded) to 2048x1024,
east-positive, left edge -180 deg (ISIS label: PositiveEast, planetocentric, CenterLongitude 0,
-180..180; GeoTIFF central_meridian 0); JPEG quality 85.
Accuracy: Two filters only: the green channel was synthesized from the red and violet data (FGDC
abstract), so dark regions look bluish-gray; close to, not exactly, true color. Olympus Mons,
Syrtis Major and Hellas checked at their cataloged positions.

JUPITER: CASSINI ISS GLOBAL COLOR MAP PIA07782 (DECEMBER 2000)
Owner: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute (Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem); USGS Astrogeology
copy
Source: USGS asc-pds-services wms_basemaps/Jupiter/Jupiter/originals/jupiter_rgb_cyl_www.jpg
(4096x2048, sha256 0c6fa8e9...), with the annotated original jupiter_from_cassini.tif for the
longitude labels
URL: https://asc-pds-
services.s3.amazonaws.com/wms_basemaps/Jupiter/Jupiter/originals/jupiter_rgb_cyl_www.jpg
License: JPL Image Use Policy: any purpose with a credit line. The Space Science Institute is a
non-NASA co-credit; the policy notes that such third-party material may carry restrictions on
commercial use.
License text: USGS mapfile maps/jupiter/jupiter_simp_cyl.map: "Image credit by NASA/JPL/Space
Science Institute."; JPL Image Use Policy (CelestiaContent LICENSES/JPL-image.txt): "may be used
for any purpose without prior permission, subject to the special cases noted below" ... "to use a
credit line in connection with images" ... "Some image and video materials on JPL public web sites
are owned by organizations other than JPL or NASA. These owners have agreed to make their images
and video available for journalistic, educational and personal uses, but restrictions are placed
on commercial uses."
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Averaged 2x2 to 2048x1024, JPEG quality 85. Not flipped: the annotated original
labels its x axis 180, 150, ... 0, 330, ... 180, i.e. west longitude decreasing to the right, so
east longitude increases to the right; left edge 180 W (-180 E). The web copy is the same picture
(correlation 0.999 at zero shift, 0.85 mirrored). The web copy's world file puts the left edge at
longitude 0 instead, 180 deg from the annotation; the annotation is followed.
Accuracy: A snapshot of 11-12 December 2000 from 36 images in two filters (451 and 750 nm)
combined to near-natural color; the poles were poorly observed, and the source map is one flat
color [169, 173, 156] over the south polar region (4.3 % of the pixels): not imaged, not terrain.
Features drift in longitude, so the Great Red Spot (about 21 S in this map) will not match any
other date; the file does not state the longitude system.

PLUTO: NEW HORIZONS LORRI/MVIC GLOBAL MOSAIC 300 M (JULY 2017)
Owner: NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute,
Lunar and Planetary Institute (FGDC originators); distributed by USGS Astrogeology
Source: USGS Astrogeology public bucket asc-pds-services,
mosaic/Pluto_NewHorizons_Global_Mosaic_300m_Jul2017_8bit.tif (309,806,463 bytes, sha256
592b7fb0f88cafa0..., md5 3a137d75e3a1a325f3de037a27563ffa = the USGS sidecar), with its ISIS label
Pluto_NewHorizons_Global_Mosaic_300m_Jul2017_8bit.lbl
URL: https://asc-pds-
services.s3.amazonaws.com/mosaic/Pluto_NewHorizons_Global_Mosaic_300m_Jul2017_8bit.tif
License: No license stated: FGDC access constraint "None", use constraint "Please cite authors"; a
NASA mission product distributed by USGS. Credited as asked.
License text: USGS FGDC record pluto_new_horizons_lorri_mvic_global_mosaic_300m.xml:
<accconst>None</accconst> <useconst>Please cite authors</useconst>
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Panchromatic LORRI and MVIC images of the 2015 flyby. Area-averaged (every source
pixel counted once, nodata excluded) to 1024x512, east-positive, left edge 0 deg (ISIS label:
PositiveEast, CenterLongitude 180, 0..360 (left edge 0 E); GeoTIFF central_meridian 180); JPEG
quality 85. 31.8 % of the pixels had no data: flat DN 109 (mean of the imaged pixels) where New
Horizons saw nothing (mostly south of ~30 S, in polar night during the 2015 flyby): not imaged,
not terrain.
Accuracy: Its label puts the map's center at 180 E (0..360); Sputnik Planitia checked at 175 E, 20
N. Resolution is very uneven (sharp on the encounter hemisphere). The flat gray area is where New
Horizons saw nothing (southern polar night); it is not terrain. Longitudes are in the frame the
mosaic was made in (nh_targets_v001 / pck00010 per its ISIS label).

IO: GALILEO SSI AND VOYAGER 1 GLOBAL MOSAIC 1 KM
Owner: Planetary Data System (FGDC originator); NASA/JPL missions; USGS Astrogeology
Source: USGS Astrogeology public bucket asc-pds-services, mosaic/Io_GalileoSSI-
Voyager_Global_Mosaic_1km.tif (65,546,342 bytes, sha256 cf65a0323aac9c4c..., md5
4fae289f9591db42f6a5ce48d491ba8a = the USGS sidecar), with its ISIS label Io_GalileoSSI-
Voyager_Global_Mosaic_1km.lbl
URL: https://asc-pds-services.s3.amazonaws.com/mosaic/Io_GalileoSSI-Voyager_Global_Mosaic_1km.tif
License: Public domain (USGS FGDC access constraint)
License text: USGS FGDC record io_voyager_galileo_ssi_global_mosaic_1km.xml: <accconst>public
domain</accconst> <useconst>None</useconst>
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Galileo SSI and Voyager 1 images. Area-averaged (every source pixel counted once,
nodata excluded) to 512x256, east-positive, left edge -180 deg (ISIS label: PositiveWest,
CenterLongitude 0 W; ISIS x grows eastward, so east longitude runs -180..180 left to right;
checked against Loki Patera in verify_textures_sky.py); JPEG quality 85.
Accuracy: Labeled PositiveWest; drawn east-positive (Loki Patera checked at 308.8 W). Grayscale
only; 512x256.

GANYMEDE: VOYAGER AND GALILEO SSI GLOBAL MOSAIC 1 KM
Owner: Astrogeology Science Center (FGDC originator); NASA/JPL missions; USGS Astrogeology
Source: USGS Astrogeology public bucket asc-pds-services,
mosaic/Ganymede_Voyager_GalileoSSI_global_mosaic_1km.tif (136,844,537 bytes, sha256
c2c8d9506b8cf8f7..., md5 7045e1290162777b8d823d4eca9b8126 = the USGS sidecar), with its ISIS label
Ganymede_Voyager_GalileoSSI_global_mosaic_1km.lbl
URL: https://asc-pds-
services.s3.amazonaws.com/mosaic/Ganymede_Voyager_GalileoSSI_global_mosaic_1km.tif
License: Public domain (USGS FGDC access constraint)
License text: USGS FGDC record ganymede_voyager_galileo_ssi_global_mosaic_1km.xml:
<accconst>public domain</accconst> <useconst>None</useconst>
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Voyager 1/2 and Galileo SSI images. Area-averaged (every source pixel counted once,
nodata excluded) to 512x256, east-positive, left edge 0 deg (ISIS label: PositiveWest,
CenterLongitude 180 W (= 180 E); ISIS x grows eastward, so the map runs 0..360 E left to right
(360 W .. 0 W); checked against Galileo Regio in verify_textures_sky.py); JPEG quality 85. 3.1 %
of the pixels had no data: flat DN 78 (mean of the imaged pixels) at the unmapped poles.
Accuracy: Labeled PositiveWest; drawn east-positive (Galileo Regio, Tros and Osiris checked).
Grayscale only; 512x256.

TRITON: VOYAGER 2 GLOBAL MOSAIC 600 M, ORANGE FILTER
Owner: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dr. Paul Schenk (FGDC originator); NASA/JPL missions; USGS
Astrogeology
Source: USGS Astrogeology public bucket asc-pds-services,
mosaic/Triton_Voyager2_ClrMosaic_GlobalFill_600m.tif (299,994,887 bytes, sha256
f20ed332e85df469..., md5 639d45b53604aa4395eccd17e4a9c0df = the USGS sidecar), with its ISIS label
Triton_Voyager2_ClrMosaic_GlobalFill_600m.lbl
URL: https://asc-pds-
services.s3.amazonaws.com/mosaic/Triton_Voyager2_ClrMosaic_GlobalFill_600m.tif
License: Public domain (USGS FGDC access constraint)
License text: USGS FGDC record triton_voyager_2_global_color_mosaic_600m.xml: <accconst>public
domain</accconst> <useconst>Please cite authors</useconst>
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Only the orange-filter band of the Voyager 2 color composite (orange, violet and UV
shown as RGB, i.e. false color) is used. Area-averaged (every source pixel counted once, nodata
excluded) to 512x256, east-positive, left edge -180 deg (ISIS label: PositiveEast, CenterLongitude
0, -180..180; GeoTIFF central_meridian 0); JPEG quality 85. 38.4 % of the pixels had no data: flat
DN 153 (mean of the imaged pixels) where Voyager 2 saw nothing (the north, in winter darkness in
1989): not imaged, not terrain.
Accuracy: The flat gray north was in darkness during the 1989 flyby: not imaged, not terrain. The
producer notes (FGDC procedure): "Grid lines were filled by neighboring pixels." Grayscale only;
512x256.

DISK COLORS: KARKOSCHKA (1998) ALBEDO SPECTRA OF JUPITER, SATURN, URANUS, NEPTUNE AND TITAN, 300-1050 NM
Owner: Erich Karkoschka; ESO spectrophotometry of 1995-07-06 to 07-10; NASA Planetary Data System
Source: PDS3 product 1995LOW.TAB and its label, carried verbatim in OrbitalCommons/starfield
crates/surfaces/data/planet-spectra at commit 5cbc6620 (sha256 d8071e07... / 6fa49ffa...)
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OrbitalCommons/starfield/5cbc6620e74bb2139fb992a6886ed8b041
4e34dd/crates/surfaces/data/planet-spectra/1995low.tab
License: PDS archive data (the label states no license); the carrying repository is MIT-licensed
License text: 1995LOW.LBL: DATA_SET_ID = "ESO-J/S/N/U-SPECTROPHOTOMETER-4-V2.0"; Low-resolution
data from: Methane, Ammonia, and Temperature Measurements of the Jovian Planets and Titan from
CCD-Spectrophotometry by Erich Karkoschka (ICARUS 1998).; starfield LICENSE: "MIT License
Copyright (c) 2024 Matthew Goodman"
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Each spectrum x TSIS-1 sunlight integrated against the CIE 1931 2-degree color-
matching functions (as tabulated in colour-science 0.4.6, BSD-3-Clause), 1 nm steps 360-830 nm, Y
= 1 for a white reflector, Bradford-adapted from the Sun's white to D65, IEC 61966-2-1 sRGB:
Jupiter [193, 193, 178], Saturn [197, 185, 156], Uranus [157, 195, 202], Neptune [137, 183, 202],
Titan [145, 126, 95].
Accuracy: Disk-averaged colors of July 1995 (Uranus's color changes with its seasons); Jupiter,
Saturn and Titan are full-disk albedo at 5.7-6.8 deg phase, Uranus and Neptune geometric albedo.
An equal-energy illuminant instead of TSIS-1 changes them by at most 3 of 255.

SUN'S COLOR: TSIS-1 HYBRID SOLAR REFERENCE SPECTRUM V2
Owner: NASA TSIS-1 / LASP (Coddington et al. 2023); 1 nm resampling by OrbitalCommons/starfield
Source: crates/surfaces/data/solar-spectrum/tsis1_hsrs_v2_1nm.csv in OrbitalCommons/starfield at
commit 5cbc6620 (sha256 c27ca614...); LASP LISIRD itself is not reachable from the build network
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OrbitalCommons/starfield/5cbc6620e74bb2139fb992a6886ed8b041
4e34dd/crates/surfaces/data/solar-spectrum/tsis1_hsrs_v2_1nm.csv
License: No license in the file; the carrying repository is MIT-licensed
License text: File header: "TSIS-1 Hybrid Solar Reference Spectrum (HSRS) version 2, resampled to
1 nm box means." / "Source: Coddington et al. (2023), Earth and Space Science,
doi:10.1029/2022EA002637"; starfield LICENSE: "MIT License Copyright (c) 2024 Matthew Goodman"
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Color of sunlight above the atmosphere: CIE xy [0.3216, 0.3321], about 6022 K
(McCamy), sRGB [255, 244, 241] with the brightest channel at 255; used for the Sun's disk and to
tint the Sun map. Also the illuminant for the planets' disk colors.
Accuracy: Solar-minimum spectrum, 0.3 % archive uncertainty over 460-2365 nm (file header).

SKY BACKDROP: GAIA DR3 SOURCE COUNTS (STSCI/MAST HATS POINT MAP)
Owner: European Space Agency (ESA), Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC): Gaia Data
Release 3. HATS catalog by the LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing,
hosted by STScI/MAST on AWS Open Data.
Source: point_map.fits (S3 bucket stpubdata, gaia/gaia_dr3/public/hats/gaia, versionId
ap2bO438Iyoss8CsAujiN7K4GnPVyjVV, sha256 3bec7fbb3140c3bb...), and the source_id and _healpix_29
columns of partitions Norder=4/Npix=115 and Norder=3/Npix=29 (read by range requests at pinned
versionIds, content pinned by sha256)
URL: https://stpubdata.s3.amazonaws.com/gaia/gaia_dr3/public/hats/gaia/point_map.fits?versionId=ap
2bO438Iyoss8CsAujiN7K4GnPVyjVV
License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO (non-commercial). ESA's Gaia license page could not be read from the
build network; a web-search summary of cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia-users/license gives CC BY-NC 3.0
IGO, and CelestiaContent's Gaia-derived data/stars.dat.license states the same. The AWS Open Data
Registry entry only says "Attribution required".
License text: AWS Open Data Registry datasets/mast-gaia-dr3.yaml @00eb3872: "License: Attribution
required." and "This [HATS](https://hats.readthedocs.io/en/stable)-formatted catalog was produced
by the LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing."; CelestiaContent
data/stars.dat.license @eab93932: "SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-CC-BY-NC-3.0-IGO";
acknowledgement (as quoted in AT-HYG ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.md): "This work has made use of data from the
European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia
Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC,
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by
national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral
Agreement."
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Two partitions of the MAST copy repeat rows (the same source_id up to 3 times):
Norder=3/Npix=29 1,616,125 rows, 1,418,703 distinct; Norder=4/Npix=115 1,368,113 rows, 543,481
distinct. Their 257 HEALPix pixels were recounted from distinct source_id, giving 1,811,709,793
sources. Counts per square degree interpolated bilinearly onto a 2048x1024 ICRS equirectangular
grid (RA increasing to the right), asinh stretch (black 2,500, soft 20,000, white 1,200,000 per
deg^2, recorded in data/sky/sky.json), grayscale JPEG quality 85. Shared under the same terms
(non-commercial).
Accuracy: Star counts, not surface brightness: the bulge and the Magellanic Clouds are bright,
bright stars do not stand out, and dust shows as holes. NSIDE 256 (0.23 deg pixels). The shipped
8-bit pixels invert (sky.json stretch) to the densities to a median 1.7 %, 99th percentile 11 %
(verify_textures_sky.py). A global duplicate check of all 2,016 partitions was out of reach (8 GB
of source_id); ten more suspicious partitions were checked clean by the research verifier.

AT-HYG V3.2 (AUGMENTED TYCHO-HYG), SUBSETS ATHYG_32_REDUCED_M10 AND ATHYG_32_HYG_IDS
Owner: David Nash (astronexus)
Source: Compiled from Tycho-2 (Høg et al. 2000) and its first supplement, Hipparcos (ESA 1997,
2007 reduction via HYG), Gaia DR3 and DR2 parallaxes (ESA/Gaia/DPAC, from gaiadr3.gaia_source_lite
and SIMBAD look-ups), the Yale Bright Star Catalog, the Gliese & Jahreiss 1991 nearby-star
catalog, the Tycho-2 Spectral Type Catalog (Wright et al. 2003) and SIMBAD cross-identifications
(CDS, Strasbourg).
URL: https://github.com/astronexus/ATHYG-Database/tree/650346e2bc57f664eb411bc5f44ffd94b8006af2
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
License text: "This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International License][cc-by-sa]." (LICENSE)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Positions turned into ICRS Cartesian parsecs from ra, dec and dist; V derived from
Tycho VT as V = VT - 0.090 (BT-VT), the formula in AT-HYG's own build notes, for 209,908 rows;
absolute magnitudes recomputed as V + 5 - 5 log10 d with no extinction correction; color indices
and spectral types turned into display temperatures; 209,156 stars within 500 pc with
parallax/error > 10 packed into deep.bin (pc x 64 in int16, M_V in 0.1 mag steps). The shipped
star files are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Accuracy: Distances are 1/parallax with no prior; 98.3% of m10 rows use Gaia DR3. Equinox J2000.0;
epoch J2000.0 except Tycho-2 stars with pflag X and no Hipparcos match (epoch J1991.5, per the
build notes). AT-HYG's ACKNOWLEDGMENTS list neither SIMBAD nor Høg et al. 2000 although its build
notes use both; both are credited here.

GAIA DATA RELEASE 3 (INSIDE AT-HYG DISTANCES)
Owner: European Space Agency (ESA), Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC)
Source: Gaia Collaboration, Vallenari et al. 2023; parallaxes as carried by AT-HYG v3.2
URL: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia
License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO (non-commercial). ESA's Gaia license page (cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia-
users/license) could not be read from the build network; a web-search summary of it gives CC BY-NC
3.0 IGO, as do the Celestia and celestia-gaia-stardb license files. A third-party PyPI package
states CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (ESA's license for images), and the AWS Open Data registry "Attribution
required". This app uses the Gaia-derived values non-commercially, as that license requires.
License text: "This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia
(https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium
(DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been
provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia
Multilateral Agreement." (AT-HYG ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.md)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Used only as the distances AT-HYG already carries; no Gaia file is read directly.
Accuracy: Parallax errors of the Gaia DR3 stars in deep.bin, read from Stellarium's copy (stored
in 0.01 mas steps) at build time: median 0.02 mas, 90th percentile 0.07 mas. No zero-point
correction.

HYG DATABASE V4.1 (HYGDATA_V41.CSV)
Owner: David Nash (astronexus)
Source: Hipparcos (ESA 1997; 2007 new reduction), Yale Bright Star Catalog 5th ed. (Hoffleit
1991), Gliese & Jahreiss 1991 (CNS3 preliminary); IAU WGSN names.
URL: https://github.com/astronexus/HYG-Database/tree/c7f7f883fe678cc7680169a50ccd7dcc49b060ce
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
License text: "The licensing for HYG v4.0 is Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0, unlike previous
versions of the HYG catalog." (hyg/version-info.md)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Used for the 661 HYG rows AT-HYG does not carry: Gliese companions (at their
primary's AT-HYG distance along their own direction, flag bit 2) and Gliese-only stars (at their
Gliese 1991 distance, flag bit 6); spectral types filled in for 971 AT-HYG rows that had none; HIP
55203 (xi UMa, deleted in HYG v3.5) mapped to HYG's xi UMa A.
Accuracy: Gliese 1991 distances are often photometric: of the 574 Gliese-only stars within 20 pc
that AT-HYG matched to Gaia DR3, 72% agree within 20% and 5% are off by more than a factor of two
(measured on these files).

STELLARIUM V26.2 HIP_GAIA3 STAR CATALOGS 0-3 (BUILD-TIME CHECK ONLY, NOT SHIPPED)
Owner: Stellarium team; catalogs built by Henry Leung (henrysky/stellarium_star_catalogs)
Source: Gaia DR3 (ESA/Gaia/DPAC) and Hipparcos values via SIMBAD
URL: https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium/tree/2b10b1a3bb534eb4e7586751054bf67b36c22e53/stars/
hip_gaia3
License: No data license stated; the files sit in a GPL-2.0-or-later source tree
License text: COPYING: "GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2, June 1991"; no data-specific notice.
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Nothing shipped. Each AT-HYG star was joined by Gaia DR3 id or HIP number to read a
parallax error. The error qualifies AT-HYG's distance only when both come from the same Gaia DR3
source (332,286 rows) or when the two parallaxes agree within 3 sigma (1,733 rows); 2,951 rows
with a distance have no applicable error.
Accuracy: Parallax stored in 0.02 mas steps; the catalog author calls the files experimental.

STELLARIUM V26.2 SKY CULTURE "MODERN_IAU"
Owner: Stellarium's team
Source: Constellation figures from the IAU "The Constellations" pages (Sky & Telescope: Roger
Sinnott, Rick Fienberg, Alan MacRobert); star names from the IAU Catalog of Star Names (IAU WGSN).
URL: https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium/tree/2b10b1a3bb534eb4e7586751054bf67b36c22e53/skycul
tures/modern_iau
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
License text: description.md, "## License": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: 752 unique figure segments resolved to named rows, 30 of them kept for the sky view
only because a star has no usable parallax; 525 IAU names attached, 9 have no row in AT-HYG/HYG.
Accuracy: Figures are a drawing convention, not a measurement; IAU constellations are defined by
their boundaries.

OPEN EXOPLANET CATALOGUE
Owner: Hanno Rein and contributors
Source: Community-curated compilation (Rein 2012, arXiv:1211.7121); most recent entries imported
from the NASA Exoplanet Archive.
URL: https://github.com/OpenExoplanetCatalogue/open_exoplanet_catalogue/tree/77ab86906b5b9cade8ebf
f60bef6aff3dfee3206
License: MIT
License text: "The database is licensed under an MIT license (see below), which basically says you
can do everything with it." (README.md) The license, verbatim from the README: "Copyright (C) 2012
Hanno Rein Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this
database and associated scripts (the "Database"), to deal in the Database without restriction,
including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute,
sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Database, and to permit persons to whom the Database is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this
permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Database. A
reference to the Database shall be included in all scientific publications that make use of the
Database. THE DATABASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM,
DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT
OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE DATABASE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE DATABASE."
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Planets listed as "Confirmed planets" only: 1,259 planets on 892 named rows. Hosts
joined to AT-HYG/HYG by identifier or by position (<= 30 arcsec, distance within 5%); an
identifier that points more than 1 degree from the catalog's own coordinates and more than 50% off
its distance is treated as a catalog slip and not used (3 hosts: Gliese 3021 A, HD 11964 A,
TOI-1411); 167 hosts within 100 pc placed from the catalog's own coordinates and distance; values
rounded to 4 significant digits.
Accuracy: As of the pinned commit, and not complete: no planet is listed for Barnard's Star, and
eps Eridani b is "Controversial", so it is not shown.

A MODERN MEAN DWARF STELLAR COLOR AND EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE SEQUENCE, V2022.04.16
Owner: Eric Mamajek
Source: Pecaut & Mamajek 2013, ApJS 208, 9 (Table 5); the copy bundled in the MeanStars 3.6.1
wheel on PyPI
URL: https://pypi.org/project/MeanStars/3.6.1/
License: No license stated on the table (the MeanStars code is BSD-3-Clause)
License text: "that reference should be cited until an updated version of the table is published"
(file header)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Bt-Vt and spectral-type columns interpolated to effective temperature for display
colors; only the derived color table ships.
Accuracy: A dwarf sequence applied to every luminosity class; display use only.

B-V TO EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE (BALLESTEROS 2012, EPL 97, 34008) — A MODEL
Owner: F. J. Ballesteros; coefficients as coded in PyAstronomy 0.25.0 (MIT)
Source: PyAstronomy/pyasl/asl/aslExt_1/ballesterosBV_T.py
URL: https://pypi.org/project/PyAstronomy/0.25.0/
License: MIT (PyAstronomy)
License text: PyAstronomy 0.25.0 METADATA: "License: MIT"
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: T = T0 (1/(a BV + b) + 1/(a BV + c)) with the coefficients read from the pinned
source: a = 0.92, b = 1.7, c = 0.62, T0 = 4600; used for 10,400 named and 78,936 deep stars.
Accuracy: A blackbody-based model. It underestimates hot stars: B-V = -0.215 gives 13,957 K where
Mamajek's B2V row has 20,600 K; at the Sun's B-V of 0.65 it gives 5,778 K (Mamajek G2V: 5,770 K).

CIE 1931 2-DEGREE STANDARD OBSERVER COLOR-MATCHING FUNCTIONS
Owner: CIE (tabulated by CVRL), via colour-science 0.4.6 (BSD-3-Clause)
Source: colour/colorimetry/datasets/cmfs.py
URL: https://pypi.org/project/colour-science/0.4.6/
License: Standard reference data; colour-science is BSD-3-Clause
License text: colour-science LICENSE: "Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or
without modification, are permitted..."
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Planck spectra integrated against the CMFs at 1 nm, converted with the IEC 61966-2-1
sRGB matrix and normalized to the largest channel.
Accuracy: The chromaticity of an ideal blackbody; real stellar spectra differ, most for M stars.

GALACTOCENTRIC FRAME: ASTROPY PARAMETER SET "V4.0"
Owner: The Astropy Developers (astropy 7.1.0); parameters from the papers cited in the frame
Source: astropy.coordinates.Galactocentric, galactocentric_frame_defaults "v4.0", read from the
pinned astropy 7.1.0 installed from PyPI (module file sha256 dfc1b53d...): R0 = 8.122 kpc
(2018A&A...615L..15G), z_sun = 20.8 pc (2019MNRAS.482.1417B), the Galactic-center direction
galcen_coord at ICRS (266.4051, -28.936175) deg, i.e. Galactic l = b = 0 (2004ApJ...616..872R),
roll 0.
URL: https://pypi.org/project/astropy/7.1.0/
License: BSD-3-Clause
License text: "Copyright (c) 2011-2024, Astropy Developers" / "Redistribution and use in source
and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following
conditions are met:" (astropy-7.1.0.dist-info/licenses/LICENSE.rst)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Every galaxy layer is converted into this frame at build time; the 4x4 matrix to ICRS
is computed with astropy from transformed points and shipped in galaxy.json.
Accuracy: The shipped matrix reproduces astropy's own transformation to 2.3e-13 kpc for 20,000
points out to 300 kpc. R0 = 8.122 kpc is GRAVITY 2018, the value the pinned astropy cites; other
pinned sources use other values: the Reid+2019 arms were fitted with R0 = 8.15 kpc and the
Drimmel+2024 arms appear to use about 8.28 kpc (SpiralMap's default Rsun is 8.277 kpc); both are
placed with their own Galactocentric radii.

LOCAL VOLUME DATABASE V1.1.1 (GLOBULAR CLUSTERS AND SATELLITE GALAXIES)
Owner: Andrew B. Pace and contributors (Pace 2025, The Open Journal of Astrophysics 8, 142); every
distance is from the paper cited on its row (LVDB cites none for ESO 93-SC08)
Source: Tables gc_harris, gc_mw_new and dwarf_mw at tag v1.1.1 (commit 72dabf78), sha256-pinned.
Globular-cluster distances are mostly Baumgardt & Vasiliev 2021 (153 of 194); the other clusters
and the satellites each cite the paper their distance comes from.
URL: https://github.com/apace7/local_volume_database/tree/72dabf7862bf9e9f1cbf6846e8c1a684fdec904c
License: CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain dedication); the README asks for a citation and a link
License text: "Creative Commons Legal Code" / "CC0 1.0 Universal" (LICENSE); "If you use this in
your research please cite the overview paper and include a link to the github repository
(https://github.com/apace7/local_volume_database)." (README.md)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: 194 Milky Way globular clusters (gc_harris 155 + gc_mw_new 39 with confirmed_real =
1) and 65 satellites (dwarf_mw with confirmed_real = 1, including the LMC and SMC: LVDB confirms
54 as galaxies, and the other 11 could still be star clusters) converted from RA, Dec and distance
to Galactocentric kpc. Left out: the 19 unconfirmed cluster candidates, the 22 systems LVDB
classes as ambiguous (cluster or dwarf), and 3 unconfirmed dwarfs. Distance, half-light radius
(LVDB rhalf_physical, major axis), ellipticity, position angle, M_V and the distance reference are
shipped as cataloged.
Accuracy: Recomputing each object's Galactocentric distance reproduces LVDB's own distance_gc to
8.7 pc at most (median 2.7 pc, 259 objects), so LVDB used the same frame. Distances equal 10^(DM/5
+ 1) pc to 0.15 %; the shipped distance errors come from the cataloged distance-modulus errors
(LVDB leaves the kpc errors of the Harris clusters at 0). verify_galaxy.py cross-checks the
cluster distances against galpy 1.12.0.

GALSTREAMS 1.2.1: MILKY WAY STELLAR-STREAM TRACKS
Owner: Cecilia Mateu (Mateu 2023, MNRAS 520, 5225) and the authors of each track, named per stream
Source: PyPI sdist galstreams-1.2.1.tar.gz (sha256 bb98b85f...): lib/master_log.txt, the default
("On") track of each stream and its summary file with InfoFlags.
URL: https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/b8/0b/5c897212bb8d075fd86cb395f69684aab06ad1a6761eab6
6bc4ecee5a7ca/galstreams-1.2.1.tar.gz
License: BSD-3-Clause
License text: "BSD 3-Clause License" / "Copyright (c) 2017, Cecilia Mateu" (LICENSE)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: 100 of the 141 default tracks. Dropped: the 41 Ibata et al. 2024 tracks whose
distance is 1.000 kpc everywhere - a placeholder, not a measurement. Kept but marked approximate:
39 tracks with one published distance for the whole track, 9 whose distance varies but is not a
measured track (interpolated between published end-point distances, one mean Galactocentric
distance, an orbit prediction, or reciprocal parallaxes galstreams flags "with caution"), and the
23 tracks whose sky path is a great circle by construction (InfoFlags bit 0 = 0; they overlap the
others). 52 tracks have both a traced path and a measured distance track. Each track decimated to
at most 120 evenly indexed points (11,940 in all) and converted to Galactocentric kpc; each
carries a note saying what is approximate about it.
Accuracy: These are smoothed tracks fitted to member stars by each paper, not the stars. Stream
widths (typically a fraction of a degree) are not drawn.

SPIRAL-ARM FIT TO MASER PARALLAXES (REID ET AL. 2019, TABLE 2) - A MODEL
Owner: M. J. Reid, K. M. Menten, A. Brunthaler et al. (ApJ 885, 131); transcribed in SpiralMap by
A. Prusty and S. Khanna
Source: SpiralMap 0.27 wheel (sha256 1688e0b0...), SpiralMap/models_.py reid_spiral.getparams
URL: https://pypi.org/project/SpiralMap/0.27/
License: MIT (SpiralMap)
License text: "MIT License" / "Copyright (c) [2025] [Prusty & Khanna]" / "Permission is hereby
granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy" (LICENSE.md)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Seven kinked log-spirals R = R_kink exp(-(beta - beta_kink) tan psi) sampled every 1
deg only over each arm's fitted beta range, x = -R cos beta, y = +R sin beta, z = 0; the table's
arm widths are shipped as they are.
Accuracy: A fit, labeled as one. The sign of y was checked at build time against the Reid et al.
2014 maser parallaxes (galkin; not shipped): median |R - R_fit| Local 0.20 kpc (n=25), Perseus
0.23 kpc (n=24), Sgr-Car 0.23 kpc (n=18), Sct-Cen 0.32 kpc (n=17); the mirrored convention gives
0.79, 0.80, 1.23, 1.08 kpc. Fitted with R0 = 8.15 kpc, drawn in a frame with 8.122 kpc.

SPIRAL-ARM FIT TO CLASSICAL CEPHEIDS (DRIMMEL ET AL. 2024) - A MODEL
Owner: R. Drimmel, S. Khanna, E. Poggio and D. M. Skowron (arXiv:2406.09127)
Source: SpiralMap 0.27 wheel,
SpiralMap/datafiles/Drimmel2024_cepheids/ArmAttributes_dyoungW1_bw025.pkl (sha256 178a547d...),
read with a numpy-only unpickler
URL: https://pypi.org/project/SpiralMap/0.27/
License: MIT (SpiralMap); the fit parameters are included with the authors' permission
License text: "MIT License" / "Copyright (c) [2025] [Prusty & Khanna]" (LICENSE.md); "Model is
publicly available but also included in the package as a userfriendly pickle file, with their
permission." (SpiralMap docs models_available.rst.txt @3f0c3aa0)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Variant '1' of the nine azimuth-range fits in the file (phi -90 to 0 deg, 1,331
Cepheids) - the one SpiralMap draws and labels its best phi range, and one of the two variants
that fit all four arms. Pitch angle and ln R0 are the mean of the "strength" and "prom" estimates,
as SpiralMap does; ln R = ln R0 - tan(pitch) phi, x = -R cos phi, y = R sin phi, sampled every 1
deg only over the fitted range. The paper itself could not be read from the build network, so
which variant it calls primary was not checked there.
Accuracy: A fit, labeled as one. It disagrees with the maser fit: at the Sun's azimuth the Orion
arm lies at R = 9.46 kpc, the Reid Local arm at 8.53 kpc (+0.93 kpc). The fits appear to assume R0
near 8.28 kpc: SpiralMap's default Rsun is 8.277, and in this frame the young Cepheids of Skowron
et al. 2019 peak about ln(8.122/8.277) = -0.019 in ln R inside the Scutum and Sagittarius-Carina
fits (verify_galaxy.py; Perseus -0.055, Orion shows no clear peak).

WHERE YOUNG STARS CROWD: GAIA OVERDENSITY MAPS (POGGIO ET AL. 2021; GAIA COLLABORATION, DRIMMEL ET AL. 2023)
Owner: E. Poggio, R. Drimmel, T. Cantat-Gaudin et al. (A&A 651, A104) and Gaia Collaboration, R.
Drimmel et al. (A&A 674, A37); Gaia data ESA/Gaia/DPAC
Source: SpiralMap 0.27 wheel: datafiles/Poggio_cont_2021/overdens_grid_locscale03.npy (sha256
a5e3388f...) and datafiles/GaiaPVP_cont_2022/over_dens_grid_threshold_0_003_dens.npy (65a9b05d...)
with their axis arrays
URL: https://pypi.org/project/SpiralMap/0.27/
License: Non-commercial: included in SpiralMap (MIT) with the authors' permission; derived from
Gaia, so the ESA/Gaia/DPAC terms (CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO) are taken to apply. The permission was given
to SpiralMap; no separate grant to downstream redistributors was found.
License text: "Data is available publicly, and also included in the package with their
permission." (SpiralMap docs models_available.rst.txt @3f0c3aa0); ESA/Gaia/DPAC data terms: CC BY-
NC 3.0 IGO (non-commercial). ESA's license page could not be read from the build network; a web-
search summary of cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia-users/license gives CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO, and
CelestiaContent's Gaia-derived data/stars.dat.license states the same (see the sky backdrop
block).
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Each 121 x 121 grid (0.1 kpc cells, 6 kpc around the Sun) written as an RGBA PNG at
its native resolution: overdensity encoded linearly (-1 to 1.5 -> 0-255) in R = G = B, alpha 0 on
the cells that hold exactly 0.0 (no data). Placed around the Sun in the Galactocentric frame;
orientation checked against young open clusters (UCC, build-time only).
Accuracy: Kernel-smoothed overdensity maps, not star lists. Coverage falls off beyond about 4 kpc
(cells with data at 4-5 kpc: gaiadr3_ob 49%, poggio2021_ums 55%). The Gaia DR3 map is clipped at
1.30 by its producers. 8-bit storage: +-0.005.

DISK AND BAR GLOW: MCMILLAN (2017) DISKS + PORTAIL (2017) / SORMANI (2022) BAR - A MODEL
Owner: P. J. McMillan (2017 best-fit Milky Way mass model); M. Portail et al. (2017) bar, analytic
fit by M. C. Sormani et al. (2022); both as distributed with Agama by E. Vasiliev
Source: Agama commit f302756b: data/McMillan17.ini (sha256 2fa000f9...) and
py/example_mw_bar_potential.py (sha256 a1c3f49e...), makeBarDensity() evaluated in numpy
URL: https://github.com/GalacticDynamics-
Oxford/Agama/tree/f302756b8af2b763db58e278e30478517dc8eea3
License: Agama license: BSD or MIT for Agama's own source (GPL only when linked with GSL)
License text: "the original source code of Agama itself is not subject to GPL and is provided
under the less restrictive BSD or MIT licenses." / "Permission is granted to anyone to use this
software for any purpose, and to alter it and redistribute it freely. Acknowledgement of the
original author is appreciated." (Agama LICENSE)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: Face-on surface density on 512 x 512 pixels over +-20 kpc: the thin and thick stellar
disks (Sigma0 exp(-R/Rd)) plus the bar density integrated over z, the bar turned to -25 deg as in
the script; log10 stretch (black 5.5e+05, white 5.8e+09 Msun/kpc^2) into an 8-bit grayscale PNG.
McMillan's bulge and gas disks are not added. The scale heights are shipped for giving the glow
its thickness.
Accuracy: A model, not an observation, and labeled so: it shows where the fitted mass models put
the stars, with no spiral arms. The bar model is fitted to the central ~5 kpc; the measured major
axis of the drawn bar is -25.00 deg.

USED ONLY TO CHECK THE GALAXY LAYER (BUILD TIME, NOT SHIPPED)
Owner: galpy 1.12.0 (Jo Bovy; BSD-3); galkin (M. Pato & F. Iocco) Reid et al. 2014 maser table;
Unified Cluster Catalogue (Perren et al. 2023); Skowron et al. 2019 Cepheids (J. Skowron)
Source: galpy named_objects.json (globular-cluster distances), galkin data_Reid14.dat @ef9c4eab
(sign convention of the Reid arms), UCC clusters_26061511.csv.gz @20ce90ee (orientation of the
young-star maps), galactic_cepheids data/Data_Table_1.dat @e72dc56a (geometry of the Drimmel
arms). All sha256-pinned.
URL: https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/1e/dc/424e5ee8999af057d804471f6f598df8cd757370ce087a0
7ad3215a14c34/galpy-1.12.0.tar.gz
License: Not shipped. galpy BSD-3; galkin no license; UCC GPL-3.0; Skowron data explicitly not
licensed
License text: "Copyright (c) 2010, Jo Bovy" (galpy LICENSE); "License: UNKNOWN" (galkin PKG-INFO);
"GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE" / "Version 3, 29 June 2007" (UCC LICENSE); "This data is NOT licenced
under the MIT or CC licenses." (galactic_cepheids data/LICENSE)
Retrieved: 2026-09-23
Adaptations: None: read at build time for the checks in 50_galaxy.py and verify_galaxy.py only.
Accuracy: The numbers these checks measure (galpy distance agreement, maser offsets from the Reid
arms, the orientation test of the young-star maps, the Cepheid offsets from the Drimmel arms) are
printed by verify_galaxy.py and quoted in the blocks above.


NOT SHOWN
There is no picture of the Milky Way from outside: no such photograph exists, and every face-on
image of our galaxy is an artist's impression. The galaxy view is built from the tracers that have
been measured and the models fitted to them, each labeled. The far side of the disk is shown only
where a fit extends there. The deep star catalog stops at 500 pc, where Gaia's parallaxes are
still good enough to place single stars; the named naked-eye stars are placed at their catalog
distances, some as far as 3.6 kpc. 76 named stars have no usable parallax (Alnilam among them), so
they are not placed in 3D: they are drawn only on the sky as seen from near the Sun, with the 30
figure lines that join them. Venus has no color: no measured Venus color or cloud map could be
sourced, so it is a plain disk, with Magellan's radar map of the surface as an option. Saturn,
Uranus and Neptune are uniform colors computed from measured spectra, because the only global maps
of them are paintings or have no clear license. 17 moons have neither a sourced map nor a measured
color and are drawn a neutral gray: Phobos, Deimos, Europa, Callisto, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys,
Dione, Rhea, Hyperion, Iapetus, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Miranda and Nereid. Hyperion has
no rotation model in pck00011, so its orientation is not modeled: its 180 × 133 × 103 km shape is
drawn as a sphere of its mean radius, 135 km. Saturn's ring edges and gaps are JPL data; their
brightness is drawn uniform and their color a neutral gray, because no ring brightness or color
profile with a clean license was reachable. Uranus's rings are thin lines at their measured radii:
about 2 to 96 km wide, they are far too narrow to draw to scale. Neptune's rings are not shown.
Pluto is placed at the Pluto–Charon barycenter and Charon is not shown: no long-term ephemeris for
either center could be sourced. The 21 moons of Mars and the giant planets are shown only from
1950 to 2049, the span of their fitted JPL ephemerides; outside it they are hidden, not
extrapolated, and a view that follows one moves to its planet. The planets and the Moon cover 1900
to 2099. Bodies cast no shadows on each other, so eclipses and the shadows of moons on their
planets are not drawn; only Saturn and its rings shadow each other. Only asteroids brighter than
absolute magnitude 12 are included — 9,028 of them, a small fraction of those known — so the main
belt is sparse and near-Earth asteroids are almost absent apart from a few named ones.


SOFTWARE AND FONTS
three.js r186 renders the scene; the copy in vendor/ is byte for byte the one vendored in the
Anatomy and Besseggen apps in this repository. Ysabeau Office by Christian Thalmann (Catharsis
Fonts), SIL Open Font License 1.1; a subset is in fonts/ with its license. A second subset of the
same face holds the Greek letters, superscript figures and the okina the data's names use;
tools/art/font_extra.py cuts it from the same pinned upstream.
three.js r186: MIT. Ysabeau Office: SIL Open Font License 1.1
The face carries its copyright in its license file, fonts/OFL.txt: "Copyright 2023 The Ysabeau
Project Authors (https://github.com/CatharsisFonts/Ysabeau)".


FULL LICENSE TEXTS
The licenses below ask that their full text accompany copies of the work. Each is reproduced
verbatim from the sha256-pinned file the credit block above quotes.

--- galstreams 1.2.1, for the stellar-stream tracks in galaxy/galaxy.json
(galstreams-1.2.1/LICENSE)

BSD 3-Clause License

Copyright (c) 2017, Cecilia Mateu
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
  list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
  this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
  and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

* Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its
  contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
  this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.


--- SpiralMap 0.27, the package the spiral-arm fits in galaxy/galaxy.json and the young-star maps
galaxy/young-*.png were taken from; the maps also carry the Gaia terms quoted above
(spiralmap-0.27.dist-info/licenses/LICENSE.md)

MIT License

Copyright (c) [2025] [Prusty & Khanna]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.


--- Agama @ f302756b, for the disk and bar model in galaxy/model.png (LICENSE)

The Agama library uses routines from GSL and is therefore available
under the GNU GPL license.
However, the original source code of Agama itself is not subject to GPL
and is provided under the less restrictive BSD or MIT licenses.
The library also includes fragments of the following third-party codes:
a somewhat modified version of TorusMapper by P. McMillan, distributed
under MIT license (we do not include the GalPot part of the original code);
a heavily modified version of DOP853 by E. Hairer, which is available under
the following free license: http://www.unige.ch/~hairer/prog/licence.txt

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
warranty. In no event will the author be held liable for any damages
arising from the use of this software.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
and to alter it and redistribute it freely. Acknowledgement of the
original author is appreciated.
