JPL Horizons: Parse Physical Data table

[keflavich]

There was a feature request on stackoverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/77509022/how-can-i-get-solar-system-body-mass-radius-in-python

from astroquery.jplhorizons import Horizons
from astropy import units as u

object_id = "199" # Mercury
obj_id = Horizons(id=object_id, location="0") # Location 0 is the solar system barycenter

response = obj_id.ephemerides_async()

print(response.text)

API VERSION: 1.2
API SOURCE: NASA/JPL Horizons API

*******************************************************************************
 Revised: April 12, 2021             Mercury                            199 / 1

 PHYSICAL DATA (updated 2021-Apr-12):
  Vol. Mean Radius (km) =  2440+-1        Density (g cm^-3)     = 5.427
  Mass x10^23 (kg)      =     3.302       Volume (x10^10 km^3)  = 6.085
  Sidereal rot. period  =    58.6463 d    Sid. rot. rate (rad/s)= 0.00000124001
  Mean solar day        =   175.9421 d    Core radius (km)      = ~1600
  Geometric Albedo      =     0.106       Surface emissivity    = 0.77+-0.06
  GM (km^3/s^2)         = 22031.86855     Equatorial radius, Re = 2440 km
  GM 1-sigma (km^3/s^2) =                 Mass ratio (Sun/plnt) = 6023682
  Mom. of Inertia       =     0.33        Equ. gravity  m/s^2   = 3.701
  Atmos. pressure (bar) = < 5x10^-15      Max. angular diam.    = 11.0"
  Mean Temperature (K)  = 440             Visual mag. V(1,0)    = -0.42
  Obliquity to orbit[1] =  2.11' +/- 0.1' Hill's sphere rad. Rp = 94.4
  Sidereal orb. per.    =  0.2408467 y    Mean Orbit vel.  km/s = 47.362
  Sidereal orb. per.    = 87.969257  d    Escape vel. km/s      =  4.435
                                 Perihelion  Aphelion    Mean
  Solar Constant (W/m^2)         14462       6278        9126
  Maximum Planetary IR (W/m^2)   12700       5500        8000
  Minimum Planetary IR (W/m^2)   6           6           6
*******************************************************************************

This seems like a reasonable table to provide machine-readable access to, and afaict, we currently don't support that.

[bsipocz]

cc @mkelley

[mkelley]

If not fully parse it, I would like to at least see this text in the metadata of the table returned to the user.