The Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page (NEOCP) is a web service listing recently-submitted observations of objects that may be

near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body orbiting the Sun whose closest approach to the Sun ( perihelion) is less than 1.3 times the Earth–Sun distance (astronomical unit, AU). This definition applies to the object's orbit a ...

s (NEOs). It is a service of the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Funct ...

(MPC), which is the official international archive for

astrometric Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies. It provides the kinematics and physical origin of the Solar System and this galaxy, the Milky Way. History ...

observations of

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

s. The NEOCP was established by the MPC on the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...

in March 1996. Astrometric observations of new NEO candidates are submitted by observers either through

email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

cURL cURL (pronounced like "curl", ) is a free and open source computer program for transferring data to and from Internet servers. It can download a URL from a web server over HTTP, and supports a variety of other network protocols, URI scheme ...

, after which they are placed in the NEOCP for a period of time until they are confirmed to be a new object, confirmed to be an already-known object, or not confirmed with sufficient follow-up observations. If the object is confirmed as a new NEO, it is given a provisional designation and its observations will be immediately published in a ''

Minor Planet Electronic Circular The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

'' (MPEC). If the object is a recovery of an already-designated NEO on a new opposition, it will also be immediately published in an MPEC. Otherwise, if the object is confirmed as a minor planet that is not a NEO, it will be published in a Daily Orbit Update MPEC on the following day. Any objects that are not confirmed due to an insufficient

observation arc In observational astronomy, the observation arc (or arc length) of a Solar System body is the time period between its earliest and latest observations, used for tracing the body's path. It is usually given in days or years. The term is mostly use ...

or a

false-positive A false positive is an error in binary classification in which a test result incorrectly indicates the presence of a condition (such as a disease when the disease is not present), while a false negative is the opposite error, where the test resu ...

detection will have its observations archived in the MPC's Isolated Tracklet File of unconfirmed minor planet candidates. This tool is updated throughout the day to facilitate follow-up observations as quickly as possible before an object is lost and no longer observable. A number of other services make use of the NEOCP and further process the data to make independent predictions of the likelihood of an object being an NEO and also of the likely risk of Earth impact, some of these are listed below.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , title = Guide to Minor Body Astrometry , url = https://minorplanetcenter.net/iau/info/Astrometry.html , publisher = Minor Planet Center , date = 9 November 2018 , accessdate = 14 August 2022 {{cite web , title = Comments and Notes on the NEOCP , url = https://minorplanetcenter.net/iau/NEO/NEOCPNotes.html , publisher = Minor Planet Center , accessdate = 14 August 2022 {{cite web , title = Isolated Tracklet File , url = https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ITF/ReadMe.txt , publisher = Minor Planet Center , date = 22 October 2015 , accessdate = 14 August 2022 {{cite journal , first1 = B. G. , last1 = Marsden , first2 = G. V. , last2 = Williams , title = The NEO confirmation page , journal = Planetary and Space Science , date = February 1998 , volume = 46 , issue = 2 , pages = 299–302 , doi = 10.1016/S0032-0633(96)00153-5 , bibcode = 1998P&SS...46..299M {{cite journal , first1 = Brian G. , last1 = Marsden , title = Comets and asteroids: searches and scares , journal = Advances in Space Research , date = January 2004 , volume = 33 , issue = 9 , pages = 1514–1523 , doi = 10.1016/S0273-1177(03)00455-1 , bibcode = 2004AdSpR..33.1514M {{cite journal , first1 = Peter , last1 = Vereš , first2 = Matthew J. , last2 = Payne , first3 = Matthew J. , last3 = Holman , first4 = Davide , last4 = Farnocchia , first5 = Gareth V. , last5 = Williams , first6 = Sonia , last6 = Keys , first7 = Ian , last7 = Boardman , title = Unconfirmed Near-Earth Objects , journal = The Astronomical Journal , date = July 2018 , volume = 156 , issue = 1 , pages = 15 , id = 5 , doi-access = free , doi = 10.3847/1538-3881/aac37d , arxiv = 1805.02804 , bibcode = 2018AJ....156....5V {{cite conference , first1 = Robert , last1 = Weryk , first2 = Richard , last2 = Wainscoat , first3 = Peter , last3 = Vereš , title = NEOs in the Isolated Tracklet File , url = https://az659834.vo.msecnd.net/eventsairwesteuprod/production-atpi-public/df7f7357faa94da382d48a7d3f1a222b , conference = 7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference , location = Vienna, Austria , date = April 2021 , id = 32 , pages = 10 , bibcode = 2021plde.confE..32W

External links

Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page at MPC

SpaceDYS NEOScan Tool

Interactive graphic showing time of most recent submitted observations for NEOCP objects

Previous NEOCP objects listing disposition/status/outcome upon being removed from the list
Astronomy data and publications

See also

References

External links