Asteroid Close Approaches — Data Architecture
What a 'close approach' means (and why it rarely means danger) is shown as reference. Upcoming approach dates and miss distances are prepared for the Minor Planet Center and NASA near-Earth-object data.
What a close approach means
A 'close approach' means an object passes relatively near Earth's orbit. The vast majority pass millions of kilometres away and pose no danger; genuine impact risks are tracked separately and are rare.
Close-approach distances are often given in lunar distances (LD): 1 LD ≈ 384,400 km, the average Earth–Moon distance.
Related in the Knowledge Graph
Sources & references
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- Minor Planet CenterIAU Minor Planet Center
Designations and orbits of asteroids, comets, and minor bodies.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.