Cosmic Index FAQ

Question 1

What is Cosmic Index?

Accepted Answer

Cosmic Index is a space-data browser for exoplanets, stars, small bodies, close approaches, fireballs, and space weather. It combines searchable catalogs with detail pages, event streams, and educational context so people can explore public astronomy and heliophysics data more easily.

Question 2

Is Cosmic Index an official NASA or NOAA site?

Accepted Answer

No. Cosmic Index is an independent product that uses public upstream datasets and operational products from organizations such as NASA, JPL, NOAA SWPC, GFZ, and Kyoto WDC. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by those organizations.

Question 3

Should I treat Cosmic Index as official operational advice?

Accepted Answer

No. Cosmic Index is designed for exploration, monitoring, and interpretation. For official warnings, watches, alerts, or mission-critical decisions, use the original upstream providers directly, especially NOAA SWPC and NASA data products.

Question 4

Where does Cosmic Index data come from?

Accepted Answer

Different parts of the site use different primary sources. Examples include the NASA Exoplanet Archive for exoplanet catalog data, JPL and CNEOS sources for small bodies and close approaches, NASA DONKI for space weather events, NOAA SWPC for operational space weather monitoring products, GFZ Potsdam for Hp30, and Kyoto WDC for AE quicklook data.

Question 5

How often does Cosmic Index update its data?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the dataset. Some catalog data refreshes less often, while space weather products can update every few minutes. Each page tries to show source attribution and timing so you can tell whether you are looking at a forecast, a quicklook product, a near-real-time stream, or a slower archival feed.

Question 6

Why might values on Cosmic Index differ from an upstream source page?

Accepted Answer

Cosmic Index sometimes normalizes, caches, or summarizes upstream data to make it more readable. That can introduce small timing differences, especially when products update rapidly. When precision matters, use the upstream link shown on the page.

Question 7

What is space weather?

Accepted Answer

On Cosmic Index, space weather refers to solar activity and its effects between the Sun and Earth, including flares, CMEs, interplanetary shocks, high-speed streams, solar energetic particles, geomagnetic storms, radio absorption, and upstream solar wind conditions.

Question 8

What does southward Bz mean for geomagnetic storms?

Accepted Answer

Southward Bz is one of the most important solar-wind inputs for geomagnetic coupling. When the interplanetary magnetic field points southward, it can reconnect more efficiently with Earth's magnetic field, making geomagnetic disturbance and stronger aurora more likely.

Question 9

What is the difference between events and alerts?

Accepted Answer

Events are records of solar or geomagnetic activity, often sourced from NASA DONKI. Alerts are operational notices, watches, warnings, or merged alert-style summaries. In other words, events help explain what happened, while alerts focus more on what operators may need to watch right now.

Question 10

Why do some DONKI-linked event types not open internal detail pages?

Accepted Answer

Not every upstream DONKI-linked type is fully supported as a first-class detail page inside Cosmic Index yet. When that happens, the app may route you to the upstream DONKI reference instead of pretending the internal detail support exists.

Question 11

Does a habitable exoplanet label mean a planet is definitely life-friendly?

Accepted Answer

No. Habitability-related labels usually reflect broad screening heuristics such as insolation, equilibrium temperature, or size ranges. They are useful for exploration, but they do not prove surface water, atmosphere quality, or biological potential.

Question 12

What does potentially hazardous asteroid mean?

Accepted Answer

No. Potentially hazardous is an orbital and size classification, not an impact prediction. It generally means an object is large enough and can approach Earth closely enough that it should be monitored carefully over time.

Question 13

Why are some object fields missing?

Accepted Answer

Astronomy catalogs are incomplete by nature. Some objects simply do not have well-constrained measurements for mass, radius, metallicity, albedo, composition, or other fields yet. Cosmic Index usually shows those as unavailable rather than guessing.

Question 14

Can I save objects, collections, searches, or alerts?

Accepted Answer

Yes, depending on the feature and your access tier. Cosmic Index supports account-based features such as saved objects, collections, saved searches, alerts, and exports, with availability and limits based on the active product configuration.

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