NASA Data Scraper — APOD & Near-Earth Asteroids

Two useful NASA feeds in one actor: Astronomy Picture of the Day (a ready-made daily content feed) and near-Earth asteroid close approaches (an asteroid tracker). Official NASA open data; works instantly with DEMO_KEY, or add your own free key for full rate.

Perfect for education and space content, daily-image widgets, science newsletters, and asteroid close-approach dashboards.

What you get

Output shape depends on mode:

• apod (Astronomy Picture of the Day) — type, date, title, explanation, mediaType (image / video), url, hdurl, copyright
• neo (near-Earth objects, NeoWs) — type, id, name, potentiallyHazardous, absoluteMagnitude, diameterMinM, diameterMaxM, closeApproachDate, missDistanceKm, velocityKmh, orbitingBody, isSentryObject, url (JPL page)

Modes

• apod — a single date, a startDate/endDate range, or count random picks.
• neo — close approaches between startDate and endDate (max 7 days apart), one row per asteroid approach.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	apod	apod or neo
date	string	today	Single APOD date YYYY-MM-DD
startDate	string	—	Range start (apod) / required (neo)
endDate	string	—	Range end (apod) / required (neo)
count	integer	—	apod: return this many random APODs
apiKey	string (secret)	DEMO_KEY	Your free api.nasa.gov key

Example input

{ "mode": "apod", "startDate": "2026-07-01", "endDate": "2026-07-10" }

Asteroid approaches this week:

{ "mode": "neo", "startDate": "2026-07-12", "endDate": "2026-07-19" }

Example output

APOD:

{
  "type": "apod",
  "date": "2026-07-10",
  "title": "The Tadpole Nebula in Gas and Dust",
  "explanation": "What's happening to the gas and dust in the Tadpole Nebula? ...",
  "mediaType": "image",
  "url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2607/Tadpole_1080.jpg",
  "hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2607/Tadpole_4000.jpg",
  "copyright": "Jane Doe"
}

Near-Earth asteroid:

{
  "type": "asteroid",
  "id": "3542519",
  "name": "(2010 PK9)",
  "potentiallyHazardous": true,
  "absoluteMagnitude": 21.3,
  "diameterMinM": 152.95,
  "diameterMaxM": 341.99,
  "closeApproachDate": "2026-Jul-14 08:33",
  "missDistanceKm": 4218766.12,
  "velocityKmh": 56234.71,
  "orbitingBody": "Earth",
  "isSentryObject": false,
  "url": "https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=3542519"
}

Why this actor

• Two ready-to-use products — APOD is a daily content feed; NeoWs is a close-approach tracker.
• Normalized asteroid rows — one flat row per close approach with size, hazard flag, miss distance and velocity already extracted.
• Instant trial — runs on DEMO_KEY with no signup; upgrade to your own key for full throughput.

Notes

• BYO key (optional): DEMO_KEY is heavily rate-limited (~30 req/hour, 50/day per IP). Grab a free key at api.nasa.gov and set apiKey (stored as a secret) for reliable runs. Never hardcode a private key in a public task example — use DEMO_KEY there.
• neo requires both startDate and endDate, and the range must be ≤ 7 days (NeoWs limit).
• Data is NASA open data; this actor is independent and not affiliated with NASA.

Pricing

Pay per result — $1.50 per 1,000 results. No subscription or platform fees; you only pay for the results you get.

Related actors

• arXiv Scraper — physics/astro preprints.
• USGS Earthquakes Scraper — natural-hazard event feeds.
• Open-Meteo Weather Scraper — forecasts by place or coordinates.