<p>You may use the <a href="http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/Cat?V/137D" rel="nofollow">XHIP</a> star catalog, using the fields X,Y,Z for the heliocentric position and U,V,W for the heliocentric velocity vector.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-12T08:43:16.790Z
2014-04-12T08:43:16.790Z
Gerald
<p>One of my favorite tools for modeling the solar system is the <a href="http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi" rel="nofollow">Horizons Ephemeris generator</a> where I can get position and velocity vectors of various bodies. Is there something similar for neighboring stars?</p>

<p>The closest I've come so far is <a href="http://www.astrostudio.org/500nearest.html" rel="nofollow">Ashland Studio's 500 nearest stars in the Hipparcos Catalog</a>. It gives distance of each star. Clicking on a star in this list will often give the star's relative velocity wrt our solar system. But it doesn't the direction of it's motion. </p>

<p>For the time being I'd like the model the stars within about 20 lightyears of Sol.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-12T08:36:29.687Z
Dude, the Ashland link you gave does give direction. See under *Astrometry*
Cheeku
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-12T20:58:36.017Z
The Ashland pages give proper motion. I suppose I could use that plus the distance from the sun to get the transverse velocity vector. But I don't see the radial velocity vector. Even if it had the radial velocity vector, making vectors in Cartesian coordinates would be a chore. Gerald provided just what I was looking for.
HopDavid
<star><solar-system>
Position and velocity vectors of nearby stars?
HopDavid
# Position and velocity vectors of nearby stars?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-04-12)

One of my favorite tools for modeling the solar system is the [Horizons Ephemeris generator](http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi) where I can get position and velocity vectors of various bodies. Is there something similar for neighboring stars?

The closest I've come so far is [Ashland Studio's 500 nearest stars in the Hipparcos Catalog](http://www.astrostudio.org/500nearest.html). It gives distance of each star. Clicking on a star in this list will often give the star's relative velocity wrt our solar system. But it doesn't the direction of it's motion.

For the time being I'd like the model the stars within about 20 lightyears of Sol.

**Tags:** star, solar-system

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Dude, the Ashland link you gave does give direction. See under *Astrometry*  
> **username_0**: The Ashland pages give proper motion. I suppose I could use that plus the distance from the sun to get the transverse velocity vector. But I don't see the radial velocity vector. Even if it had the radial velocity vector, making vectors in Cartesian coordinates would be a chore. username_2 provided just what I was looking for.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-04-12. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

You may use the [XHIP](http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/Cat?V/137D) star catalog, using the fields X,Y,Z for the heliocentric position and U,V,W for the heliocentric velocity vector.


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