Wikipedia:WikiProject Astronomical objects/Infoboxes planets

Most of these entries should be measured in SI units. Some of them, however, should have more "human-accessible" units, in addition to SI units. I've indicated some cases with a second unit name in brackets. In the case of times (orbital periods, rotation), I think it best to give all periods in days for comparison purposes, and provide a translation (in parentheses) into years, days, hours, etc.; whatever is most appropriate for the duration being described.

Oh, and compared to table templates for things like the elements, I think that this template should be considered somewhat more flexible. Moons with no atmosphere whatsoever could skip the atmospheric composition section entirely, for example (though atmospheric density would still be listed). Moons also wouldn't have their orbital radii listed in AU, since AUs are such large units. For planets, use "perihelion" and "aphelion" instead of "periapsis" and "apoapsis."

In the case of "number of moons" and "is a moon of", only one of these rows will be used by any given object. There aren't any moons with moons (yet), though perhaps "co-orbital with" might be a useful row to add in a few cases.

A set of colours for use in the 2-column headers of this table:

On orbital characteristics: The orbital circumference should be computed from the semi-major axis using Ramanujan's approximation for ellipses. The ratio of that circumference to the period then gives the average orbital speed. The minimum and maximum speeds follow from Kepler's laws: $$v_{max} = 2\pi a^2 \frac{\sqrt{1-e^2}}{T a (1-e)}$$ and $$v_{min} = 2\pi a^2 \frac{\sqrt{1-e^2}}{T a (1+e)}$$. Note that, by convention, all orbital parameters are given in the primocentric reference system (heliocentric for the planets).

On physical characteristics: The surface area and volume of non-spherical objects (e.g. moonlets, asteroids) must use the proper ellipsoid formulae, because even slight departures from sphericity will make a large difference, particularly for the area.

On the subject of obliquity: Obliquity is the angle between the object's axis of rotation and the normal to the plane of its orbit. Do not confuse this with the Tilt listed in the JPL pages, which is a measure of the angle between the local Laplace plane and the primary's equatorial plane. In fact, most inner moons have synchronous rotations, so their obliquities will be, by definition, zero. Outer moons simply have not been seen from close up enough to determine their true obliquities (although Phoebe, recently seen by the Cassini probe, is an exception; see Talk:Phoebe (moon) for the derivation of its obliquity).

Conversion log
Still to be done:
 * For Neptune:
 * Nereid

Done:

Template: Infobox planet
Template: Infobox planet

The above fields need incorporating into this template.

Footers

 * Template:Solar System - Planets in the Solar System
 * Template:Mars - Mars' natural satellites
 * Template:Moons of Jupiter - Jupiter's natural satellites (exhaustive)
 * Template:Moons of Saturn - Saturn's natural satellites (exhaustive)
 * Template:Uranus - Uranus's natural satellites
 * Template:Neptune - Neptune's natural satellites
 * Template:Trans-Neptunian dwarf planets - Plutoids
 * Template:Moons of plutoids - Natural satellites of Pluto, Haumea and Eris

Useful sources

 * JPL's SSD, Natural Satellite Physical Parameters
 * JPL's SSD, Planetary Satellite Mean Orbital Parameters
 * Solarviews
 * The Nine Planets

Extrasolar planets

 * Extrasolar Planet