Near-Earth object focused on asteroids and short-period comets. CNEOS even restricts its definition of NECs to short-period comets—, 107 such objects have been discovered. , only 20 comets have been observed to pass within of Earth, including 10 which are or have been short-period comets. Two of these comets, Halley's Comet and 73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann, have been observed during multiple close approaches. The closest observed approach was 0.0151 AU (5.88 LD) for Lexell's Comet on July 1, 1770. After an orbit change due to a close approach of Jupiter in 1779, this object is no longer a NEC. The closest approach ever observed for
Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite three missions. The spacecraft will demonstrate the utility of the "Multi-Mission Microsatellite Bus" (MMMB) as part of the CSA's efforts to develop an affordable multi-mission bus. "Near Earth Space Surveillance" (NESS), led by Principal Investigator Alan Hildebrand of the University of Calgary, will use NEOSSat to search for and track near-Earth asteroids inside Earth's orbit around the Sun, including asteroids in the Aten and Atira classes. These asteroids are particularly difficult to detect from the surface of the Earth, as they are usually positioned in the daylit or twilit sky, when background light from the Sun makes such faint objects