Solar System Ephemerides

astropy.coordinates can calculate the SkyCoord of some of the major solar system objects. By default, it uses approximate orbital elements calculated using PyERFA routines, but it can also use more precise ones using the JPL ephemerides (which are derived from dynamical models). The default JPL ephemerides (DE430) provide predictions valid roughly for the years between 1550 and 2650. The file is 115 MB and will need to be downloaded the first time you use this functionality, but will be cached after that. Other JPL ephemerides can be requested by name for specific use cases you may have (see the examples below).

Note

Using JPL ephemerides requires that the jplephem package be installed. This is most conveniently achieved via pip install jplephem, although whatever package management system you use might have it as well.

Three functions are provided; get_body(), get_moon() and get_body_barycentric(). The first two functions return SkyCoord objects in the GCRS frame, while the latter returns a CartesianRepresentation of the barycentric position of a body (i.e., in the ICRS frame).

Examples

Here is an example of using these functions with built-in ephemerides (i.e., without the need to download a large ephemerides file):

>>> from astropy.time import Time
>>> from astropy.coordinates import solar_system_ephemeris, EarthLocation
>>> from astropy.coordinates import get_body_barycentric, get_body, get_moon
>>> t = Time("2014-09-22 23:22")
>>> loc = EarthLocation.of_site('greenwich') 
>>> with solar_system_ephemeris.set('builtin'):
...     jup = get_body('jupiter', t, loc) 
>>> jup  
<SkyCoord (GCRS: obstime=2014-09-22 23:22:00.000, obsgeoloc=(3949481.69182405, -550931.91022387, 4961151.73597633) m, obsgeovel=(40.159527, 287.47873161, -0.04597922) m / s): (ra, dec, distance) in (deg, deg, AU)
    (136.91116253, 17.02935396, 5.94386022)>

Above, we used solar_system_ephemeris as a context, which sets the default ephemeris while in the with clause, and resets it at the end.

To get more precise positions than is possible with the built-in ephemeris (see Precision of the Built-In Ephemeris), you could use the de430 ephemeris mentioned above, or, if you only care about times between 1950 and 2050, opt for the de432s ephemeris, which is stored in a smaller, ~10 MB, file (which will be downloaded and cached when the ephemeris is set):

>>> solar_system_ephemeris.set('de432s') 
<ScienceState solar_system_ephemeris: 'de432s'>
>>> get_body('jupiter', t, loc) 
<SkyCoord (GCRS: obstime=2014-09-22 23:22:00.000, obsgeoloc=(3949481.69182405, -550931.91022387, 4961151.73597633) m, obsgeovel=(40.159527, 287.47873161, -0.04597922) m / s): (ra, dec, distance) in (deg, deg, km)
    (136.90234846, 17.03160654, 8.89196021e+08)>
>>> get_moon(t, loc) 
<SkyCoord (GCRS: obstime=2014-09-22 23:22:00.000, obsgeoloc=(3949481.69182405, -550931.91022387, 4961151.73597633) m, obsgeovel=(40.159527, 287.47873161, -0.04597922) m / s): (ra, dec, distance) in (deg, deg, km)
    (165.51854528, 2.32861794, 407229.55638763)>
>>> get_body_barycentric('moon', t) 
<CartesianRepresentation (x, y, z) in km
    (1.50107535e+08, -866789.11996916, -418963.55218495)>

For one-off calculations with a given ephemeris, you can also pass it directly to the various functions:

>>> get_body_barycentric('moon', t, ephemeris='de432s')
... 
<CartesianRepresentation (x, y, z) in km
    (1.50107535e+08, -866789.11996916, -418963.55218495)>
>>> get_body_barycentric('moon', t, ephemeris='builtin')
... 
<CartesianRepresentation (x, y, z) in AU
    (1.00340683, -0.00579417, -0.00280064)>

For a list of the bodies for which positions can be calculated, do:

>>> solar_system_ephemeris.bodies 
('sun',
 'mercury',
 'venus',
 'earth-moon-barycenter',
 'earth',
 'moon',
 'mars',
 'jupiter',
 'saturn',
 'uranus',
 'neptune',
 'pluto')
>>> solar_system_ephemeris.set('builtin')
<ScienceState solar_system_ephemeris: 'builtin'>
>>> solar_system_ephemeris.bodies
('earth',
 'sun',
 'moon',
 'mercury',
 'venus',
 'earth-moon-barycenter',
 'mars',
 'jupiter',
 'saturn',
 'uranus',
 'neptune')

Note

While the sun is included in the these ephemerides, it is important to recognize that get_sun always uses the built-in, polynomial model (as this requires no special download). So it is not safe to assume that get_body(time, 'sun') and get_sun(time) will give the same result.

Note

When using JPL ephemerides, be aware that answers may change at levels that can be surprising if you are not careful about understanding the frame you are in. See for example the case of the DE440s ephemerides, which is described in more detail in astropy PR #11608. So it is usually best to stay within the same ephemerides for consistency.

Precision of the Built-In Ephemeris

The algorithm for calculating positions and velocities for planets other than Earth used by ERFA is due to J.L. Simon, P. Bretagnon, J. Chapront, M. Chapront-Touze, G. Francou and J. Laskar (Bureau des Longitudes, Paris, France). From comparisons with JPL ephemeris DE102, they quote the maximum errors over the interval 1800-2050 below. For more details, see the PyERFA routine, erfa.plan94. For the Earth, the rms errors in position and velocity are about 4.6 km and 1.4 mm/s, respectively (see erfa.epv00).

Planet	L (arcsec)	B (arcsec)	R (km)
Mercury	4	1	300
Venus	5	1	800
EMB	6	1	1000
Mars	17	1	7700
Jupiter	71	5	76000
Saturn	81	13	267000
Uranus	86	7	712000
Neptune	11	1	253000