Discovery Statistics

Last update: 2024-03-18 20:26 UTC

 

This page summarises some statistical information on the NEA discovery rates. Thanks to the operation of wide-field high sensitivity automated sky surveys the number of known NEAs is rapidly growing. Data and plots presented here aim at providing a continuously updated snapshot of the situation.

The first three histograms give an overview of the discovery rate over different time spans; in particular, the distribution of discoveries over the year exhibits a clear seasonal effect.

The cumulative diagrams are obtained by dividing the population into subsamples corresponding to different size ranges. They show that most of the large NEAs (diameter > 1 km) have already been detected, and therefore smaller objects dominate the present discoveries.

The last plot summarises the magnitude (size) distribution of the known NEA population, showing that a large fraction remains undetected, the most challenging being the small-size and inner Earth objects.

Decades plot

Annual plot

Seasonal plot

Cumulative plot #1

Cumulative plot #2

Cumulative plot #3

Magnitude plot

 

Additional information


Near Earth Object Program Discovery Statistics
https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/

The Minor Planet Centre NEO Page
http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/NEO/TheNEOPage.html