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Loading contentWhere our facts come from, and the rules we follow when we use them.
Asteria Star covers everything above Earth, and it is source-ready by design. Scientific astronomy and space content is built to be cited from authoritative primary and reference sources rather than asserted on our own authority. Every topic page — and every knowledge-graph relation marked as science — declares the sources it draws on.
Visual media will be drawn only from openly licensed or public-domain collections. For each image we record its source, its license (public domain or a specific Creative Commons license), and any required credit before it is published.
These are the organizations whose data, research, and imagery anchor the platform. This list will grow as the encyclopedia deepens.
Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.
Orbital data, ephemerides, and small-body parameters for planets, asteroids, and comets.
European missions, observatories, and space science imagery.
Canadian missions, instruments, and contributions to international programs.
Japanese missions (Hayabusa, Akatsuki) and space science.
Russian crewed and robotic spaceflight history and programs.
Indian missions (Chandrayaan, Mangalyaan) and launch vehicles.
Official naming, definitions, constellation boundaries, and astronomical nomenclature.
Designations and orbits of asteroids, comets, and minor bodies.
Precise time, almanac data, Sun/Moon rise-set, and phases.
Meteor shower activity, radiants, and peak forecasts.
Ground-based optical/infrared observatory data and imagery.
Southern-hemisphere observatory data and imagery (VLT, ALMA partner).
Reference database of astronomical objects, identifiers, and measurements.
Reference database for extragalactic objects (galaxies, quasars).
Bibliographic index of peer-reviewed astronomy and astrophysics literature.
High-precision parallax, magnitude, and position for ~118,000 stars.
Billion-star astrometry, photometry, and distances (future identifier support).
Aggregated, openly-licensed star catalogue combining Hipparcos, the Yale Bright Star Catalogue, and the Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars.
Openly-licensed deep-sky catalogue: object types, positions, magnitudes, sizes, morphology, and cross-identifiers.
General reference for the history of astronomy, biographies, and cultural context.
Official record of Nobel laureates, prize motivations, and award years.
Cosmic microwave background maps and the cosmological parameters of the ΛCDM model.
Direct detections of gravitational waves from compact-object mergers.
Horizon-scale images of supermassive black holes (M87*, Sagittarius A*).
Wide-field mapping of dark matter and dark energy via weak lensing and galaxy clustering.
Spectroscopic redshift survey measuring baryon acoustic oscillations and dark energy.
Multi-wavelength survey of galaxies, quasars, and large-scale structure.
Space-weather forecasts and alerts: aurora (OVATION), the Kp index, and the G1–G5 geomagnetic storm scale.
Public-domain solar-position geometry: sunrise, sunset, solar noon, twilight, declination, and the equation of time.
Public domain (US Government work).
The Space Weather Database Of Notifications, Knowledge, Information: solar flares, CMEs, and geomagnetic storms.
Two-line orbital elements (TLEs) for satellites including the ISS, used with a propagator to predict passes.
Science operations and public image archives for the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes (MAST, HubbleSite, webbtelescope.org).
Hubble/Webb images released by NASA/STScI are generally free to use with a credit line; each item's terms are checked before use.
The European Hubble image archive and press releases.
ESA/Hubble images are generally licensed CC BY 4.0; attribution is required.
The European James Webb Space Telescope image archive and press releases.
ESA/Webb images are generally licensed CC BY 4.0; attribution is required.
Openly licensed and public-domain space imagery.
Each file's license (public domain or Creative Commons) and attribution are recorded before use.
Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Starship, and the Merlin/Raptor engines — manufacturer specifications and launch data.
Ariane and Vega launch-vehicle families — user's manuals and mission data.
Atlas V, Delta IV, and Vulcan Centaur — manufacturer specifications and mission data.
Electron, Neutron, and the Rutherford/Archimedes engines — manufacturer specifications.
New Shepard, New Glenn, and the BE-3/BE-4 engines — manufacturer specifications.
A specialist reference compilation of launch vehicles, stages, and spacecraft across all spacefaring nations.
Last reviewed 2026-06-29.