Close approaches: rewind the encounter

An event is more than an orbit crossing

JPL CAD records a calculated encounter date, encountering body, nominal separation and relative velocity. Tuduni preserves the orbit solution identifier and fetch timestamp alongside those values.

Read the uncertainty with the distance

Where the source supplies them, the panel shows three-sigma minimum and maximum distances and timing uncertainty. They describe that source solution, not a guarantee of a future path. No uncertainty tube is invented from a static Keplerian curve.

Watch it unfold

Selecting an encounter sets the clock shortly before the published instant, loads the small body and requests a fine-sampled bounded trajectory. The camera frames the encounter and sets a slower playback rate. Pause, reverse, or follow the object to inspect the geometry.

From the cached JPL catalog

836 matching records in this bounded snapshot. Last fetched 2026-10-22.

Sources & scientific accuracy

NASA/JPL SBDB supplies catalog identities and orbital elements, Horizons supplies dated trajectories, and CAD supplies close-approach records. An encounter is a calculated passage, not an impact warning. Source dates, orbit solutions and available uncertainty fields are shown in the explorer.

Display radii, generic shapes and comet activity are illustrative. Read Tuduni’s time and accuracy guide or view data sources and credits.