The Planetary Science theme of PADC is organized around four main resources: the Encyclopedia of extra-solar planets, SkyBoT and associated services, APIS, and VESPA, a system of data services interoperable through a protocol addressing the whole field of Planetary Science.
Extrasolar planets
The study of extrasolar planetary systems has become a very active field which will grow continuously in the coming years and decades. This new field of astronomy comprises two types of activities: observations and modeling. Observations are intended both to detect new planets and to refine our knowledge of these objects. Modeling is aiming at the theoretical understanding of the physical and dynamical processes acting on individual planets, planetary systems, and the interactions of the planets with their host stars.
An exhaustive on-line catalogue of extrasolar planets properties was established in the Observatory of Paris in February 1995, after the confirmation of the first planets around a pulsar. It is constantly updated to include all published properties of these objects and can be queried through VO protocols (Cone Search and EPN-TAP). A user-friendly interface is available through the VESPA portal, and on the dedicated web site.
In addition to the catalogue, the web interface provides an exhaustive bibliography and a list of conferences, plus several online tools of scientific interest, for instance to display cross-correlations between planetary and stellar characteristics. The data can be plotted and studied more extensively using standard VO applications such as TOPCAT.
SkyBoT / SsODNet / M4ast
Some services comprising the VO Solar System portal of IMCCE are included in this theme: SkyBoT, SsODNet, and M4ast.
SkyBoT (Sky Body Tracker) is a VO tool to seek and identify solar System objects in astronomical images. It relies on a database of pre-computed ephemeris of all of the known solar system objects, which can be queried in many ways. SkyBoT is available directly from some VO tools, e.g. Aladin and Audela, and can be directly queried on line.
SsODNet is a project to connect external databases of small bodies of the solar System and provide them with a global VO interface. It currently provides a name resolver that allows the user to identify an object through its various denominations, or through its celestial coordinates at a given time. SsODNet is used as a support application in the VESPA portal to query a target using all its possible designations and aliases.
M4ast contains a database of asteroid spectra (either acquired by the team or selected from other sources). The catalogue is accessible either from the web site or through the EPN-TAP protocol via the VESPA portal. In addition, a fitting system based on a spectral library of minerals is available on the web site.
APIS
APIS (Auroral Planetary Imaging and Spectroscopy) is a compilation of reprocessed HST images and spectra related to auroral phenomena on giant planets.
Planetary aurorae are powerful emissions radiated from the auroral regions of magnetized planets by accelerated charged particles, in a wide range of wavelengths, from radio to X-rays. The UV range in particular is adapted to measure collisionally excited transitions of H and H2, the dominant species in the upper atmosphere of giant planets, produced by precipitating auroral particles. In addition, it provides a better angular resolution.
Auroral UV observations therefore provide a wealth of information on planetary atmospheres and magnetospheres. They also offer a unique diagnostic to remotely probe the solar wind activity throughout the heliosphere.
The APIS database is accessible from a dedicated web site or via VO requests, e. g., from the VESPA portal.
VESPA
VESPA is an integrated system connecting many data services related to Planetary Science and solar Physics. The VESPA portal allows the user to query simultaneously these services, to identify data of interest from science-oriented parameters, and to plot and analyze data on line using standard techniques.
VESPA originated as an R&D action conducted in the framework of the FP7 Europlanet-RI program to define a science-driven access method to Planetary Science data in general, and reached maturity during the Europlanet-2020 program (2015-19). It is now maintained in the Europlanet-2024 program, started in Feb. 2020. The resulting system heavily relies on the developments of the Astronomical Virtual Observatory (IVOA) and space agencies (IPDA).
EPN-TAP is a data access protocol based on the Table Access Protocol of the IVOA and on a general Data Model for Planetary Science. Data services are declared in the IVOA registries, are queried from the VESPA portal, and the results can be visualized using standard IVOA tools. In addition, the VESPA portal also implements the PDAP protocol to query PDS data archives from ESA and JAXA.
VESPA currently accesses the major Planetary Science data services at PADC, plus a number of small local databases. It is being expanded in the current Europlanet-2024 program to connect many new data services from European institutes. The VESPA activity of Europlanet-2024 gives support to data providers in order to set up small data services locally and make them available to the community through a powerful data mining and visualization system.
MASER
The MASER (Measuring, Analyzing & Simulating Emissions in the Radio range) service is offering access to a series of tools and databases linked to low frequency radioastronomy (a few kilohertz to a few tens of megahertz). Radio measurements in this spectral range are done with ground based observatories (for frequencies above the terrestrial ionosphere cutoff at 10 MHz) or from space based platforms (at low frequencies).
In this frequency range, the main radio sources are the Sun and the magnetized planets. Measurements of the low frequency electric and magnetic field fluctuations can also provide local plasma diagnostics and in-situ observations of plasma waves phenomena in the Solar Wind or in planetary environments.
FRIPON
The “Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network” (FRIPON) covers the whole French territory. The main goal of the network is to detect any meteorite fall occuring in the metropolitan France, and to observe their trajectory with enough accuracy to determine their orbital origin and their parent body. Thanks to the deployment of a hundred cameras, FRIPON is the world’s densest meteor observation network in such a vast territory. The predictions for the project are to harvest one to two meteorites strewn fields per year. Detection images and computed trajectories will be distributed in several institutes, including PADC.
Emerging services
New major data services are being developed, usually in the frame of VESPA or MASER. They are interfaced via EPN-TAP and accessible from the VESPA portal. Recent ones include:
- TNOs are cool: a compilation of observations of Trans-Neptunian Objects by the Herschel and Spitzer orbital observatories, plus selected published properties of TNOs.
- ExPRES (Exoplanetary and Planetary Radio Emission Simulator): a simulation tool to support planetary radio observations from ground-based or space borne instruments. The code has been designed in relation to the JUNO mission, and is used to prepare the JUICE mission.
- VVEx: provides access to observations of Venus by the VIRTIS instrument on Venus-Express. VESPA provides search functions on top of the ESA/PSA archive, and derived products will be included in the data service.
- VIR_Ros: provides access to observations of comet 67P by the VIRTIS instrument on Rosetta. VESPA provides search functions on top of the ESA/PSA archive. The VRos_geocor service provides access to recalibrated data from the M channel only.
Last update on 12 February 2025