<p>The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the officially designated clearing house for all asteroid observations, including Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). Their database has the records of all observations for all asteroids. The <a href="https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Database Search</a> page is the best place to start: <a href="https://i.sstatic.net/0I9mP.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/0I9mP.png" alt="Screenshot of part of the MPC's Database Search page" /></a>
Since you say you are specifically interested in NEOs, if you don't have a specific one in mind (I'm quite fond of (65803) Didymos myself...) you can hit the radio buttons for the category you are interested in and then the <code>Show</code> button (and wait a while, there's over 33,000 known NEOs now).</p>
<p>That will being up a list of the all the objects in that category which will then allow you to click on the link to go to the detail page e.g. for (433) Eros (the first NEO to be discovered), this will produce:
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/YVZqu.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/YVZqu.png" alt="Detail page for NEO (433) Eros" /></a></p>
<p>At the bottom are the first 2 rows of data out of the 14,542 in the database for this object. Clicking on the download link will produce the full list of observations which are in the so-called <a href="https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/info/OpticalObs.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MPC 1992 format</a>. This will let you &quot;recreate&quot; the initial discovery and orbit fit by feeding a subset of these observation into your orbit fitting code. Note that there may be observations before the discovery date, as there is in the case. These are &quot;precoveries&quot; which were found in other earlier data (photographic plates in this case) after the initial orbit was determined. The detail page will tell you the discovery observation e.g. * Discovered at Berlin on 1898-08-13 by G. Witt. * for Eros. In the downloaded datafile, this will be marked by a <code>*</code> in column 13.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-20T04:35:55.940Z
2023-11-20T17:35:24.057Z
2023-11-20T17:35:24.057Z
astrosnapper
<p>I am a high school student that is currently writing an extended essay in physics. In my essay I compare the accuracy of Gauss method and double-r iteration method for determining the preliminary orbits of near earth objects. I have my simulations ready, but I need data that would provide me with the physical features (including coordinates) of relevant objects in time intervals so that I could activate my simulation for different NEOs and compare results. What are some databases that I can use?</p>
<p>I have an MIT email address as well if that helps on logging into anything.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-20T17:52:53.620Z
JPL Horizons can generate positions for given times and orbital elements to match. https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/app.html#/
Greg Miller
<orbital-mechanics><near-earth-object>
Appropriate NEO databases for preliminary orbit determination simulations
juniorastro
# Appropriate NEO databases for preliminary orbit determination simulations

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-11-18)

I am a high school student that is currently writing an extended essay in physics. In my essay I compare the accuracy of Gauss method and double-r iteration method for determining the preliminary orbits of near earth objects. I have my simulations ready, but I need data that would provide me with the physical features (including coordinates) of relevant objects in time intervals so that I could activate my simulation for different NEOs and compare results. What are some databases that I can use?

I have an MIT email address as well if that helps on logging into anything.

Thanks.

**Tags:** orbital-mechanics, near-earth-object

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: JPL Horizons can generate positions for given times and orbital elements to match. https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/app.html#/  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2023-11-20. Score: 4

The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the officially designated clearing house for all asteroid observations, including Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). Their database has the records of all observations for all asteroids. The [Database Search](https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search) page is the best place to start: [![Screenshot of part of the MPC's Database Search page](https://i.sstatic.net/0I9mP.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/0I9mP.png)
Since you say you are specifically interested in NEOs, if you don't have a specific one in mind (I'm quite fond of (65803) Didymos myself...) you can hit the radio buttons for the category you are interested in and then the `Show` button (and wait a while, there's over 33,000 known NEOs now).

That will being up a list of the all the objects in that category which will then allow you to click on the link to go to the detail page e.g. for (433) Eros (the first NEO to be discovered), this will produce:
[![Detail page for NEO (433) Eros](https://i.sstatic.net/YVZqu.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/YVZqu.png)

At the bottom are the first 2 rows of data out of the 14,542 in the database for this object. Clicking on the download link will produce the full list of observations which are in the so-called [MPC 1992 format](https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/info/OpticalObs.html). This will let you "recreate" the initial discovery and orbit fit by feeding a subset of these observation into your orbit fitting code. Note that there may be observations before the discovery date, as there is in the case. These are "precoveries" which were found in other earlier data (photographic plates in this case) after the initial orbit was determined. The detail page will tell you the discovery observation e.g. \* Discovered at Berlin on 1898-08-13 by G. Witt. \* for Eros. In the downloaded datafile, this will be marked by a `*` in column 13.


---

