NASA Near-Earth Object (Asteroid) Scraper

What does NASA Near-Earth Object Scraper do?

The NASA Near-Earth Object Scraper extracts comprehensive asteroid and comet data from NASA's NeoWs (Near Earth Object Web Service) API. This Actor fetches information about near-Earth objects including size estimates, orbital characteristics, close approach distances, and hazard assessments.

With this Actor, you can:

• Browse all NEOs — Paginate through NASA's complete catalog of near-Earth objects
• Get weekly approach feed — Fetch asteroids approaching Earth within a specific date range
• Extract detailed data — Size, speed, distance at closest approach, hazard status, and more

This Actor uses a direct API wrapper approach (no web scraping) for reliable, real-time data access. Perfect for researchers, scientists, data journalists, space enthusiasts, and applications requiring asteroid tracking data.

Why use NASA Near-Earth Object Scraper?

Business and research use cases:

• Astronomy research & education — Compile asteroid datasets for academic papers, student projects, and science outreach
• Space monitoring platforms — Feed live near-Earth object data into dashboards or alerting systems
• Data journalism — Report on potentially hazardous asteroids and close approaches
• Scientific visualization — Create interactive maps and charts of asteroid trajectories and approach distances
• AI training datasets — Use NASA's official data to train models for space object detection or classification
• Scheduled monitoring — Set up automated workflows to track new or hazardous near-Earth objects

Key advantages:

• Official NASA data — Direct access to authoritative, peer-reviewed asteroid data
• No authentication headaches — Free DEMO_KEY for testing; users register once at NASA for production keys
• Real-time updates — Latest close approach data and orbital parameters
• Structured JSON output — Ready for analysis, integration, or further processing
• Reliable and stable — API maintained by NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office
• Scalable on Apify — Schedule recurring runs, monitor performance, and integrate with downstream tools

How to use NASA Near-Earth Object Scraper

Step 1: Choose your mode

The Actor supports two modes:

1. Browse Mode (default) — Paginate through all cataloged NEOs. Useful for downloading the entire NEO database or sampling asteroids.
2. Feed Mode — Fetch asteroids approaching Earth within a 7-day window. Useful for monitoring upcoming close approaches.

Step 2: Set up input

For Browse Mode:

• Leave Mode as "Browse All NEOs"
• Set Max Results to the number of asteroids you want (1–5000)
• Leave Start Date empty

For Feed Mode:

• Set Mode to "Weekly Approach Feed"
• Set Start Date (YYYY-MM-DD format) — for example, 2024-01-15 fetches asteroids approaching Jan 15–21, 2024
• Leave Max Results empty (it's ignored in this mode)

Step 3: Provide or use default API key

• Testing: Use the default DEMO_KEY (rate-limited to 30 requests/hour)
• Production: Register free at https://api.nasa.gov/ to get your personal API key with higher rate limits

Step 4: Run and download

Click Start and wait for results. Download your dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel via the Output tab.

Input

Input Schema

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
apiKey	string	No	DEMO_KEY	NASA API key from https://api.nasa.gov/. DEMO_KEY is rate-limited.
feedMode	enum	No	browse	Mode: browse (all NEOs) or feed (weekly approach).
startDate	string	No	(empty)	Start date for feed mode (YYYY-MM-DD format). Ignored in browse mode.
maxResults	integer	No	100	Maximum NEOs to return in browse mode (1–5000). Ignored in feed mode.

Example Input (Browse Mode)

{
  "apiKey": "DEMO_KEY",
  "feedMode": "browse",
  "maxResults": 50
}

Example Input (Feed Mode)

{
  "apiKey": "DEMO_KEY",
  "feedMode": "feed",
  "startDate": "2024-01-15"
}

Output

Output Fields

Each asteroid record includes:

Field	Type	Description
id	string	NASA's unique NEO identifier (e.g., "2000433")
name	string	Asteroid/comet name (e.g., "433 Eros (A898 PA)")
nasaJplUrl	string	Link to NASA JPL's Small-Body Node database
absoluteMagnitude	number	Brightness magnitude (lower = brighter)
estimatedDiameterMinKm	number	Minimum size estimate (km)
estimatedDiameterMaxKm	number	Maximum size estimate (km)
isPotentiallyHazardous	boolean	Marked as potentially hazardous (NASA criteria)
isSentryObject	boolean	Listed in NASA's Sentry monitoring system
closeApproachDate	string	Date of closest approach (YYYY-MM-DD)
closeApproachVelocityKmh	string	Velocity relative to Earth (km/h)
missDistanceKm	string	Distance at closest approach (km)
orbitingBody	string	What the object orbits (typically "Earth")

Example Output

[
  {
    "id": "2000433",
    "name": "433 Eros (A898 PA)",
    "nasaJplUrl": "http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2000433",
    "absoluteMagnitude": 10.31,
    "estimatedDiameterMinKm": 21.7,
    "estimatedDiameterMaxKm": 48.6,
    "isPotentiallyHazardous": false,
    "isSentryObject": false,
    "closeApproachDate": "1975-06-19",
    "closeApproachVelocityKmh": "13089.0",
    "missDistanceKm": "49582150.0",
    "orbitingBody": "Earth"
  }
]

Data Table

Asteroid ID	Name	Diameter (km)	Hazardous	Closest Approach (km)	Speed (km/h)
2000433	433 Eros	21.7–48.6	No	49,582,150	13,089
2000719	719 Albert	13.0–29.0	Yes	5,500,000	18,970

Pricing / Cost Estimation

This Actor uses a direct API approach — no HTML parsing overhead.

• Per-result cost: $0.001 per asteroid record
• Typical run costs:
  • 50 asteroids (browse mode) ≈ $0.05
  • 100 asteroids ≈ $0.10
  • 5,000 asteroids ≈ $5.00
  • Weekly feed (~200 asteroids) ≈ $0.20

Free tier benefits:

• DEMO_KEY supports up to 30 requests/hour — ideal for testing
• Register free at https://api.nasa.gov/ for higher limits

How to optimize cost:

• Start with maxResults: 50 to test before larger runs
• Use feed mode to fetch only approaching asteroids (typically 10–50 per week)
• Schedule runs during off-peak hours if on a usage-based plan

Tips & Advanced Options

Using a Custom NASA API Key

1. Register free at https://api.nasa.gov/ with your email
2. You'll receive an API key instantly (look for API_KEY in the confirmation email)
3. Paste your key into the apiKey input field in the Actor
4. Your key grants 1,000 requests per hour (vs. 30 for DEMO_KEY)

Feed Mode: Monitoring Upcoming Approaches

Use feed mode to monitor asteroids approaching Earth in a specific week:

{
  "apiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY",
  "feedMode": "feed",
  "startDate": "2024-12-25"
}

This fetches all asteroids approaching Dec 25–31, 2024. Great for holiday close-approach monitoring!

Browse Mode: Sampling the Entire Catalog

{
  "apiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY",
  "feedMode": "browse",
  "maxResults": 1000
}

Fetches the first 1,000 asteroids in NASA's catalog. You can repeat with different maxResults to download the complete database in batches.

Processing Output in Workflows

Export results as:

• JSON — For APIs and direct integration
• CSV — For Excel/Sheets analysis
• HTML — For web publishing

Then feed into:

• Data visualization — Create charts of asteroid sizes, distances, speeds
• Alert systems — Flag potentially hazardous asteroids
• Database — Bulk-import into your own systems

FAQ, Disclaimers & Support

Legal Disclaimer

This Actor uses publicly available NASA data via the official NeoWs API. Data is free to use under NASA's open data policy. Always attribute data to NASA and link to https://api.nasa.gov/ in any publication.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What if I get a rate limit error? A: DEMO_KEY is limited to 30 requests/hour. Register for a free API key at https://api.nasa.gov/ for 1,000 requests/hour.

Q: How often is the NEO data updated? A: NASA updates close approach data continuously as new observations arrive. The NEO database is maintained by the Planetary Defense Coordination Office.

Q: Can I get data for a specific asteroid? A: This Actor returns paginated results. To find a specific asteroid by name, download a dataset and filter locally, or contact us for a custom solution.

Q: What does "potentially hazardous" mean? A: NASA classifies an asteroid as potentially hazardous if it's larger than 25 meters AND passes within 7.5 million km of Earth. This does NOT mean an impact is likely—just that it meets NASA's monitoring criteria.

Q: How far back does the data go? A: The close approach data covers historical records and future predictions. Dates range from the 1900s to 2200+.

Q: Why are some asteroids missing a close approach date? A: The Actor returns the most recent/nearest close approach. If no recent approach is recorded, the date field may be null.

Known Limitations

• Feed mode fetches data within a 7-day window only (NASA API limit)
• DEMO_KEY has a 30 req/hour rate limit
• Largest browse query returns up to 5,000 results

Getting Help

• Issues or bugs? Report them in the Issues tab
• Need a custom scraper? We offer tailored solutions. Contact us via the support link in the Apify Console
• Questions about the data? Visit https://api.nasa.gov/ or https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/

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Data source: NASA Near Earth Object Web Service (NeoWs) Updated: Data refreshed daily from NASA observations License: Public domain (NASA)