metadata
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: MPC Comet Orbital Elements
language:
- en
description: >-
Orbital elements for all known comets from the Minor Planet Center. Includes
perihelion distance, eccentricity, orbital angles, magnitude, and
classification.
task_categories:
- tabular-classification
- tabular-regression
tags:
- space
- comets
- orbits
- mpc
- orbital-mechanics
- open-data
- tabular-data
size_categories:
- n<1K
configs:
- config_name: default
data_files:
- split: train
path: data/mpc_comet_elements.parquet
default: true
MPC Comet Orbital Elements
Part of the Orbital Mechanics Datasets collection on Hugging Face.
Orbital elements for 946 known comets published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC). Covers periodic, long-period, defunct, and interstellar objects.
Dataset description
The MPC maintains the authoritative catalogue of comet orbits, updated as new observations refine existing solutions and new comets are discovered. Each record contains the six Keplerian orbital elements (perihelion distance, eccentricity, argument of perihelion, longitude of the ascending node, inclination, and perihelion date), plus absolute magnitude and slope parameter.
Schema
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
periodic_comet_number |
Int64 | IAU periodic comet number (null for non-periodic) |
orbit_type |
string | MPC orbit type code: C (long-period), P (periodic), D (defunct), X (uncertain), I (interstellar), A (minor-planet-like) |
orbit_type_name |
string | Human-readable orbit type |
packed_designation |
string | MPC packed provisional designation |
perihelion_year |
int | Year of perihelion passage |
perihelion_month |
int | Month of perihelion passage |
perihelion_day |
float | Day of perihelion passage (TT) |
perihelion_date |
datetime | Perihelion passage date (truncated to day) |
perihelion_distance_au |
float64 | Perihelion distance (AU) |
eccentricity |
float64 | Orbital eccentricity |
arg_perihelion_deg |
float64 | Argument of perihelion, J2000.0 (degrees) |
lon_asc_node_deg |
float64 | Longitude of the ascending node, J2000.0 (degrees) |
inclination_deg |
float64 | Inclination to ecliptic, J2000.0 (degrees) |
epoch_date |
datetime | Epoch of osculating elements (perturbed solutions) |
absolute_magnitude_h |
float64 | Absolute (total) magnitude parameter H |
slope_parameter_g |
float64 | Photometric slope parameter G |
orbital_period_years |
float64 | Orbital period in years (Kepler's 3rd law, null for hyperbolic) |
is_hyperbolic |
bool | True if eccentricity >= 1.0 |
name |
string | Comet name / designation |
reference |
string | MPC reference for the orbit solution |
Quick stats
- 946 comets total
- 639 periodic (P), 290 long-period (C), 3 defunct (D)
- 115 on hyperbolic orbits (eccentricity >= 1)
- Perihelion distances range from 0.0057 to 14.1 AU
- Closest perihelion: C/2026 A1 (MAPS) at 0.005738 AU
Usage
from datasets import load_dataset
ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/mpc-comet-elements", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()
# All periodic comets
periodic = df[df["orbit_type"] == "P"].sort_values("perihelion_distance_au")
# Hyperbolic / interstellar visitors
hyperbolic = df[df["is_hyperbolic"]].sort_values("eccentricity", ascending=False)
# Sun-grazing comets (perihelion < 0.05 AU)
sungrazers = df[df["perihelion_distance_au"] < 0.05]
# Distribution of inclinations
df["inclination_deg"].hist(bins=50)
Data source
Minor Planet Center — Comet Orbital Elements. Format documentation: Comet Orbit Format.
Update schedule
Rebuilt monthly (static dataset).
Related datasets
- neo-close-approaches — NEO close approaches from NASA JPL
- mpc-asteroid-orbits — MPC asteroid orbital elements
Pipeline
Source code: juliensimon/space-datasets
Citation
@dataset{mpc_comet_elements,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {MPC Comet Orbital Elements},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/mpc-comet-elements},
note = {Based on data from the IAU Minor Planet Center}
}