What is it?

The Minor Planet Satellite Database is just that: a database of minor planets and their satellites. We store data that has been observationally measured (such as orbit period, diameter, visual magnitude). When viewing the data, we also calculate inferred values. The database lets you choose which fields you care about, as well as restrict the data based on a limited set of criteria.

Motivation

The motivation behind the project is to provide researchers and enthusiasts with a single repository of information, whereby trends can be analyzed-- and data more easily extracted.

As minor planet satellites continue to be discovered, and information accrued, the usefulness of this database will undoubtedly increase.

How did it start?

This project was born out of the mind of Derek C. Richardson-- who originally got the inspiration from fantasy sports leagues. These fantasy leagues oftentimes present the user with a table of data that can be sorted/filtered-- enabling the gamer to make informed decisions about placement and what not. Around the same time, David Bettis was searching for a practicum project to complete the requirements for the College Park Scholars Earth Life and Time program. A preliminary version was completed spring of 2002, and work continued on the project spring of 2003.

Technical Information

The web application uses the following technologies:

• PHP4 (server-side scripting language)
• MySQL as the data source
• CSS, Javascript, ... and other modern browser features.

Future versions

• Easy importing of data (from numerical simulations)
• Visual analysis; graphs, charts, and the like