juliensimon/ssodnet-asteroid-properties
SsODNet Asteroid Physical Properties Part of the Orbital Mechanics Datasets collection on Hugging Face. Physical and dynamical properties of 1,487,300 asteroids and dwarf planets from the IMCCE (Paris Observatory) Solar System Open Database Network (SsODNet). This is the most comprehensive asteroid characterization catalog available, compiling best estimates from thousands of published studies. Dataset description SsODNet aggregates physical property measurements… See the full description on the dataset page: https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/ssodnet-asteroid-properties.
SsODNet Asteroid Physical Properties
Part of the [Orbital Mechanics Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/orbital-mechanics-datasets-69c24caca4ab3934c9856994) collection on Hugging Face.
Physical and dynamical properties of 1,487,300 asteroids and dwarf planets from the IMCCE (Paris Observatory) Solar System Open Database Network (SsODNet). This is the most comprehensive asteroid characterization catalog available, compiling best estimates from thousands of published studies.
Dataset description
SsODNet aggregates physical property measurements from the astronomical literature into a single, curated "best estimates" flat table (ssoBFT). For each asteroid, IMCCE selects the most reliable published value for each property using a transparent ranking scheme. Properties include diameters, albedos, taxonomic classifications, masses, densities, rotation periods, and thermal inertia — alongside orbital elements and dynamical family memberships.
The fill factor varies by property: orbital elements are available for nearly all objects, while physical measurements like mass (429 objects) and density (468 objects) are known for far fewer.
Schema
Quick stats
- 1,487,300 asteroids and dwarf planets
- 149,496 with measured diameter
- 149,497 with measured albedo
- 170,933 with taxonomic classification
- 429 with mass estimate
- 468 with density estimate
- 51,005 with rotation period
- 255,987 with dynamical family assignment
Usage
from datasets import load_dataset
ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/ssodnet-asteroid-properties", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()
# Taxonomy distribution
df["taxonomy_class"].value_counts().head(10)
# Large asteroids with known density
dense = df[df["density_g_cm3"].notna() & (df["diameter_km"] > 100)]
dense[["sso_name", "diameter_km", "density_g_cm3", "taxonomy_class"]].sort_values(
"diameter_km", ascending=False
)
# Near-Earth asteroids sorted by MOID
neas = df[df["sso_class"] == "NEA"].sort_values("moid_earth_au")
neas[["sso_name", "diameter_km", "moid_earth_au", "albedo"]].head(20)
# Diameter vs albedo by taxonomy
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
sample = df.dropna(subset=["diameter_km", "albedo", "taxonomy_complex"])
for cpx, grp in sample.groupby("taxonomy_complex"):
plt.scatter(grp["diameter_km"], grp["albedo"], s=1, alpha=0.4, label=cpx)
plt.xscale("log")
plt.xlabel("Diameter (km)")
plt.ylabel("Albedo")
plt.legend(fontsize=7)Data source
IMCCE SsODNet — Solar System Open Database Network
The ssoBFT (Best Flat Table) compiles best estimates of physical and dynamical properties for all known asteroids and dwarf planets. Data originates from thousands of peer-reviewed publications, curated by IMCCE (Paris Observatory). See Berthier et al. (2023), "SsODNet: The Solar System Open Database Network", A&A 671, A151.
Pipeline
Source code: juliensimon/space-datasets
Citation
@dataset{ssodnet_asteroid_properties,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {SsODNet Asteroid Physical Properties},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/ssodnet-asteroid-properties},
note = {Based on IMCCE SsODNet ssoBFT, Berthier et al. (2023)}
}