ExoAtlas — Explorer 1.2.0 Release

The Asteroid Catalog

ExoAtlas now includes the complete MPCORB database published by the Minor Planet Center — the authoritative international registry of asteroid orbits. This release adds 1,519,858 numbered asteroids to the platform, each classified into one of nine orbital categories:

Category	Description	Count
PHA	Potentially Hazardous Asteroids — objects whose orbits bring them within 0.05 AU of Earth's orbit	2,532
NEO	Near-Earth Objects — perihelion < 1.3 AU, excluding PHAs	36,457
Hungaria	Inner asteroid belt group between Mars and the main belt (~1.78–2.0 AU)	31,267
Main-Belt	The classical asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter (~2.0–3.3 AU)	1,370,942
Outer-Belt	Objects beyond the main belt but inside Jupiter's orbit	21,139
Hilda	Asteroids in 3:2 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter (~3.7–4.2 AU)	6,993
Jupiter Trojan	Objects at Jupiter's L4 and L5 Lagrange points	13,488
Distant	Trans-Neptunian objects, Centaurs, and other distant minor bodies	7,000
Other	Unclassified or ambiguous orbit types	2,644

Each asteroid record includes orbital elements, physical parameters (absolute magnitude H, slope parameter G), epoch data, and the last observation date — all sourced directly from the MPC.

Live 3D Visualization

ExoAtlas Explorer's 3D solar system view now renders Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) and Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) in real-time alongside planets and comets — approximately 2,500 additional objects representing the asteroid populations most relevant to Earth.

Hover over any asteroid to see its full orbital path drawn in real-time. Use the filter buttons in the Solar System Objects panel to isolate PHAs, NEOs, or view them alongside other categories. Click the camera icon on any asteroid row to smoothly fly to that object and track its motion.

Data Catalog Updates

The Data Catalog receives an even larger update. While the live visualizer focuses on PHAs and NEOs, the Data Catalog surfaces approximately 34,000 notable asteroids — every PHA, plus the brightest objects (absolute magnitude H ≤ 14.0) from each remaining category. These are the asteroids large enough to be regularly observed and scientifically characterized.

Key features added to the Data Catalog:

Asteroid Category Filter: A new Asteroid filter button joins the existing Planets, Dwarf Planets, Moons, Comets, and Spacecraft filters. Clicking it instantly isolates asteroid records in the table.
Expandable Detail Rows: Click any asteroid row to expand it and view complete orbital elements, physical parameters, classification flags, and last observation date.
Asteroid Number Lookup: When the Asteroid filter is active, a lookup bar appears allowing direct search by MPC number or NASA SPK-ID. Enter 1 or 20000001 to find Ceres, 433 or 20000433 to find Eros. Any of the 1.5 million asteroids in the full catalog can be looked up this way — even those not shown in the default table view.
NASA SPK-ID Convention: All asteroid IDs follow the NASA Small-Body Database convention (20000000 + MPC_number), matching the identifiers used by NASA JPL Horizons and SBDB.

Automatic Weekly Updates

The asteroid catalog is automatically refreshed every week to stay synchronized with the Minor Planet Center's latest data releases. Both the home page Data Currency panel and the Data Catalog statistics table reflect the freshness of the asteroid data so you always know how current it is.

Related Updates

ExoAtlas Explorer remains a free, open tool for the community. We are dedicated to making the solar system more accessible through high-fidelity visualization. Clear skies!