Analyzing NEOs¶

NEO stands for near-Earth object. The Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS) defines NEOs as comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighborhood.

And what does “near” exactly mean? In terms of orbital elements, asteroids and comets can be considered NEOs if their perihelion (orbit point which is nearest to the Sun) is less than 1.3 au = 1.945 * 108 km from the Sun.

[1]:

from astropy import time

from poliastro.bodies import Earth
from poliastro.frames import Planes
from poliastro.plotting import OrbitPlotter
from poliastro.twobody.orbit import Orbit

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Small Body Database (SBDB)¶

[2]:

eros = Orbit.from_sbdb("Eros")
eros.plot(label="Eros")