The sources · Set it up in AureoleThe whole world · no key

Source note · Science and environment

Sky & space

Space weather, the sky as seen from where you are, the orbits of the Solar System, confirmed exoplanets and satellites, read from NOAA, NASA’s JPL, NASA’s exoplanet archive and CelesTrak. Every result names the service that produced it.

6,451 planets around other stars: 2 in 3 found from spaceone column per year of discovery, from 1992 to 2026 · one dot per planet

the Kepler space telescopeother space telescopesground-based observatories

NASA Exoplanet Archive · year of discovery and facility of each confirmed planet · Kepler includes its second mission, K2; the other space telescopes, led by TESS¹Public data · drawn, nothing generated

1 in 2confirmed exoplanets were discovered by the Kepler telescope and its second mission, K2: 3,337 of 6,451.²

1,504planets were discovered in 2016, the record year: 1,379 of them come from Kepler and K2.

1,012planets have been discovered by TESS since 2018. In 2026, it found 273 of the year’s 361.

Who publishes this data

NOAA · SWPCSpace Weather Prediction Center

The Space Weather Prediction Center is a forecast center of the National Weather Service, the weather service of NOAA, the US agency for the oceans and the atmosphere. It is based in Boulder, Colorado.⁷

For this sourceIt publishes the state of space weather on NOAA’s scales, the Kp index and its forecast, alerts, and the monthly sunspot series calculated by the SIDC in Brussels.⁷

swpc.noaa.gov

NASA · JPLJet Propulsion Laboratory

At JPL, the Solar System Dynamics group is part of the section that designs and navigates missions. It calculates the position, speed and physical properties of the planets, their moons, asteroids and comets.⁷

For this sourceIt publishes the Horizons ephemerides, the Small-Body Database, and the close approaches of asteroids and comets to Earth.

ssd.jpl.nasa.gov

NASA Exoplanet Archive

The archive is run by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), under contract with NASA, as part of its exoplanet exploration program. It gathers the published properties of exoplanets and their stars, each with its publication.⁷

For this sourceIt publishes the list of confirmed planets, one row per planet, with their discovery, orbit, size and mass.

exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu

CelesTrak

CelesTrak is run by T.S. Kelso. It shares the orbits of the objects tracked by the US space surveillance network, calculated from its observations.⁷

For this sourceIt publishes the satellite catalog and the orbit of every tracked object, by name or by number.

celestrak.org

Publishers: NOAA · NASAand CelesTrak, for satellites
Services: 4NOAA, JPL, the exoplanet archive, CelesTrak⁶
Small bodies since: 1801Ceres, discovered in Palermo⁵
Exoplanets since: 1992the first two in the archive¹
Updated: Liveread when you ask
Access: Freeno account, no key

Data as of November 2, 2026

01What you can ask

From the Sun to the planets of other stars.

Six families of data that Aureole can query for you.

1.6 millionasteroids and comets
34,326satellites and debris in orbit³
6,451planets around other stars
Since 1749sunspots, month by month
Anywheretonight’s sky, as seen from where you are
Liveauroras and solar storms

The figures count what the source holds on the day it was read; the sources themselves keep moving.

Data as of November 2, 2026

02What you get

Three questions, three answers from the source.

Ask Aureole: the answers below are the ones the source returned.⁴

You ask

What is the closest exoplanet to us?

The source returns

Proxima Centauri b

NASA Exoplanet Archive · about 4.2 light-years away (1.30 pc)
discovered in 2016, and its neighbor d in 2025

What you get

The closest, searched among all the planets

When you ask the archive for the closest planets, it cuts its list short before sorting it. Aureole reads the distance of every planet and does the sorting itself: it finds the two planets of Proxima Centauri, at the same distance.⁶

You ask

What is the mass of Kepler-186 f?

The source returns

1.71 Earth masses

Kepler-186 f · discovered in 2014 by Kepler
mass estimated from the radius, no measurement in the archive

What you get

Estimates are flagged

For each mass, the archive says whether it was measured, whether it is a minimum mass, or whether it was calculated from the planet’s radius. The mass of Kepler-186 f is calculated, like 3,035 of the 6,451 masses in the archive. Aureole receives this information along with the value.⁶

You ask

How close to Earth will Apophis pass in 2029?

The source returns

38,011 km

99942 Apophis · April 13, 2029
0.00025 au, or 0.10 lunar distances

What you get

The distance in three units

JPL calculates the close approaches of asteroids and comets, past and future. Aureole gives each distance in astronomical units, in lunar distances and in kilometers.⁶

Answers read at the source on November 2, 2026, as examples: sources update, and Aureole reads the current answer when you ask.

03What makes a figure checkable

A checkable figure answers six questions.

A model can write “1.30 parsecs.” For that figure to be checked, you need to know which object it is about, where it is in the sky, what the figure measures, where the measurement comes from, who publishes it, and how to find the original data.⁴

Which object?: Proxima Centaurithe star of planets b and d
Where in the sky?: 217.39° · −62.68°right ascension · declination
What?: The distance of the systemsy_dist · parsecs · ± 0.0004

1.30 pc

Proxima Centauri · distance of the system

Where does the measurement come from?: The TICv8 catalogTESS Input Catalog
Who publishes it?: NASA Exoplanet ArchiveCaltech · IPAC
How to check it again?: The exact requestcan be replayed on the archive

In Aureole, this information appears under the answer.

When the tool reads exoplanets, asteroid approaches, ephemerides or sunspots, the “Data read” footer lists them under the answer: the dataset, the number of rows, the publisher’s site.

The “Raw data” link replays the tool’s exact request on the archive. For satellites and space weather, the answer names its source in its text.

Data read · 1

ds_1

NASA Exoplanet Archive — confirmed planets

1 row · exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu

Raw data

The footer’s layout, from the app’s code, for the closest planet asked on its own.

04Where it comes from

From the telescope to your conversation.

A value passes through several hands before it reaches your conversation. Each one is identified, so you can trace the answer back to the instrument and the publication.

They observe

Telescopes and observatories

Telescopes on the ground and in space observe the Sun, asteroids, comets and other stars; radars track satellites.

They publish

Science teams

Every exoplanet discovery appears in a scientific journal, with its method and its margins of error. The archive cites the publication each value comes from.¹

They gather

NOAA, JPL, NASA’s archive, CelesTrak

NOAA’s SWPC publishes space weather and the SIDC’s sunspot numbers. JPL calculates the orbits of the Solar System. The Exoplanet Archive brings together the confirmed planets, and CelesTrak publishes the orbits of satellites.

It reads

Aureole, on your Mac

When you ask a question, Aureole queries these services directly. It sends only the object you’re looking for, the period and, for the sky over a place, its coordinates; your conversation isn’t sent to these services.

DepthWhen the series the source publishes begin

1749Sunspots · first month of the series
1801Small bodies · Ceres, asteroid no. 1
1957Satellites · first object in the catalog
1992Exoplanets · the first two in the archive

05Limits

What the source doesn’t cover.

And the precautions to take before drawing conclusions.

A live position for the ISS only

Aureole gives the position of the International Space Station at the moment you ask, read from wheretheiss.at. For other satellites, it gives the orbit and its period, without a live position.⁶

Auroras remain an estimate

Aureole compares the Kp index forecast with the place’s geomagnetic latitude. It doesn’t take clouds, moonlight or light pollution into account, and says so in its answer.⁶

No pictures of the sky

Aureole reads values and tables. It shows no photographs of the sky and no images of the Sun.

What the tool reads in one go

Up to 31 days of ephemerides per call; 25 asteroid approaches listed; 10 exoplanets per search, 50 at most, and 15 satellites listed for a name, always with the total.⁶

On as soon as it’s installedNo account, no key. Nothing to set up.

Settings→ Data sources→ Science and environment

Read the sky from NOAA and NASA on your Mac.

Aureole is a Mac app. Download it and ask your question: it reads space weather from NOAA, orbits and ephemerides from JPL, exoplanets from NASA’s archive and satellites from CelesTrak. No account to open.

Download for Mac

Show the 7 sources for this noteHide the sources

NASA Exoplanet Archive, pscomppars table (one row per confirmed planet), read on November 2, 2026: 6,451 planets, discovered from 1992 to 2026. Kepler, K2 and TESS according to the facility column (disc_facility), the other space telescopes according to the locale column (disc_locale); the 36 planets discovered both on the ground and in space are counted with the ground. Every value in the table points to its publication. The pscomppars table, Query by year.
K2 is the second mission of NASA’s Kepler space telescope. NASA · Kepler and K2.
CelesTrak satellite catalog (satcat.csv), read on November 2, 2026: objects with no decay date, in orbit around Earth, whose orbit is published. 11,186 Starlink satellites (their name starts with STARLINK), 8,527 other satellites, 12,325 pieces of debris, 2,235 rocket stages, 53 unidentified objects. satcat.csv, Catalog format.
Values read on November 2, 2026 by the requests Aureole’s Sky & space tool builds: Proxima Centauri b and d and Kepler-186 f in the pscomppars table, Apophis in JPL’s close approaches (CAD) for April 2029. The distance of Proxima Centauri comes from the TICv8 catalog. Proxima Centauri, Kepler-186 f, Apophis, TICv8.
JPL’s Small-Body Database, read on November 2, 2026: 1,582,814 asteroids and comets, including 4,083 comets; Ceres, object no. 1, discovered on January 1, 1801 in Palermo. Sunspots: the SIDC’s monthly series, published by SWPC, from January 1749 to October 2026. Small-Body Database, Ceres, Sunspots.
The 4 services queried, plus api.wheretheiss.at for the position of the ISS, the sorting done by the app, where each mass comes from, the three units for distances, the live position of the ISS alone, the aurora estimate, the caps on a read: the code of Aureole’s Sky & space tool (SpaceNativeToolProvider).
Who publishes this data: the official pages of SWPC, JPL, the NASA Exoplanet Archive and CelesTrak, checked on October 16, 2026; the producer of the sunspot series, as named by SWPC, checked on October 21, 2026. NOAA SWPC, NWS, NCEP, NOAA SWPC, Solar Cycle Progression, JPL SSD, About, NASA Exoplanet Archive, Acknowledgements, NASA Exoplanet Archive, Overview, CelesTrak, Webmaster, CelesTrak, GP data.