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JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB) Lookup

The brahe.datasets.sbdb module resolves a small-body search string (name or designation) to its NAIF/SPK ID and SI physical parameters via the JPL Small-Body Database Lookup API. Its primary use is obtaining the NAIF ID needed to request a targeted SPK from Horizons and to define a body via CentralBody.Custom.

SBDBClient.lookup(sstr) returns an SBDBObject. Responses are cached under $BRAHE_CACHE/sbdb (default ~/.cache/brahe/sbdb) and reused until the cache age exceeds the client's cache_max_age (default 30 days); pass cache_max_age=0 to always refetch. Setting BRAHE_NETWORK_MODE=offline serves cached data without any request; see Environment Variables. Ambiguous search strings and unknown objects raise an error.

Ephemerides for bodies outside the DE distributions

Pair SBDB with the Horizons client to obtain SPK files for bodies that are not included in the major DE or planetary-system SPK distributions: resolve the body's NAIF/SPK ID here, then request a targeted SPK for that ID from Horizons and load it into the SPICE registry.

Resolving an Object

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import brahe as bh

client = bh.datasets.sbdb.SBDBClient()
ceres = client.lookup("Ceres")

print(f"NAIF ID: {ceres.naif_id()}")
print(f"Full name: {ceres.full_name}")
print(f"GM: {ceres.gm:.6e} m^3/s^2")
print(f"Radius: {ceres.radius:.1f} m")

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use brahe as bh;
use bh::datasets::sbdb::SBDBClient;

fn main() {
    let client = SBDBClient::new();
    let ceres = client.lookup("Ceres").unwrap();

    println!("NAIF ID: {}", ceres.naif_id());
    println!("Full name: {}", ceres.full_name);
    println!("GM: {:.6e} m^3/s^2", ceres.gm.unwrap());
    println!("Radius: {:.1} m", ceres.radius.unwrap());
}

SBDBObject Fields

spkid/naif_id() (int), full_name (str), des (str), shortname (str | None), kind (str), neo (bool), gm (float | None, m³/s²), and radius (float | None, m). gm and radius are populated only when the database catalogues them, and are converted from the database's km-based units to SI on parse.

See Also