Documentation / @interstellar-tools/constants / SYSTEMS

Variable: SYSTEMS

const SYSTEMS: SystemsType;

Defined in: bodies/systems.ts:29

Predefined systems: the barycenters that stars and planets orbit.

INFO

• Systems don't list their members; stars and planets name their system as parent.

• Systems nest: alpha-centauri-ab orbits inside alpha-centauri.

• distance (from the Sun) and galactic x,y,z are in light-years (ly).

• Sources: compiled from public references, mainly NASA, NASA JPL, ESA and Wikipedia. See data sources.

Full list of systems in the dataset

This list is not an exhaustive list, and addition/changes will be added over time.

id	name	kind	parent	orbit.a	orbit.e	orbit.period	orbit.retrograde	orbit.angle	distance	x	y	z
solar-system	Solar System	planetary	milky-way	27000 ly	0.07	230 Myr		1.5707963267948966	0 ly	0 ly	27000 ly	20 ly
spica	Spica	binary	milky-way	27201.148872795795 ly	0.006	550 Myr		1.5616057972952029	250 ly	250 ly	27201.148872795795 ly	0 ly
alpha-centauri	Alpha Centauri	multiple	milky-way	27000.000353646294 ly	0.07	230 Myr		1.570634474946578	4.37 ly	4.37 ly	27000.000353646294 ly	0 ly
alpha-centauri-ab	Alpha Centauri AB	binary	alpha-centauri	503 au	0.5	547 kyr		3.099566485428788

Example item in dataset:

{
  id: 'alpha-centauri',
  name: 'Alpha Centauri',
  kind: 'multiple',
  parent: 'milky-way',
  // ~4.4 ly away, so its galactic orbit is approximated by the Sun's
  orbit: {
    a: { value: 27000.000353646294, unit: 'ly' },
    e: 0.07,
    period: { value: 230, unit: 'Myr' },
    angle: 1.570634474946578 as Radians
  },
  distance: { value: 4.37, unit: 'ly' },
  x: { value: 4.37, unit: 'ly' },
  y: { value: 27000.000353646294, unit: 'ly' },
  z: { value: 0, unit: 'ly' }
},
{
  // The A-B pair, orbiting the system barycenter opposite Proxima (Kervella et al. 2017)
  id: 'alpha-centauri-ab',
  name: 'Alpha Centauri AB',
  kind: 'binary',
  parent: 'alpha-centauri',
  orbit: {
    a: { value: 503, unit: 'au' }, // 8700 au × m_P / (m_AB + m_P)
    e: 0.5,
    period: { value: 547, unit: 'kyr' },
    angle: 3.099566485428788 as Radians
  }
}

Example

console.log(SYSTEMS[0].name); // "Solar System"

See

• SystemsType
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri