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
Earth observation satellite to get the desired global coverage while the relatively constant geometry to the Sun mostly is an advantage for the instruments. The "frozen" orbit is selected as this is the closest to a circular orbit that is possible in the gravitational field of the Earth. Terrain can be mapped from space with the use of satellites, such as Radarsat-1 and TerraSAR-X. Earth observation satellite Earth observation satellites or Earth remote sensing satellites are satellites specifically designed for Earth observation from orbit, similar to spy satellites but intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, map making etc. The first