CloseAsteroids C# Console App

AOT compiled C# Console app. Chiseled Ubuntu and Alpine Dockerfiles with minimal dependencies provided for optional containerization.

Uses NASA's SBDB Close-Approach Data API to return a list of asteroids and comets that have made NEO close-approaches within a given distance and time range.

Example usage (ran from the root dir of this repo):

dotnet run --date-min <start-date> --date-max <end-date> --dist-max <distance(au)>
dotnet run --date-min 2099-01-01 --date-max 2100-01-01 --dist-max 0.2

You can also call the binary directly:

./CloseAsteroids --date-min 2063-05-12 --date-max 2065-02-03 --dist-max 0.3
# after adding to your PATH
CloseAsteroids --date-min 2063-05-12 --date-max 2065-02-03 --dist-max 0.3

By default returns asteroid / comet close approaches for Earth but can specify other bodies using the body option:

dotnet run --date-min 2099-01-01 --date-max 2100-01-01 --dist-max 0.2 --body "Mercury"

You can see a list of available bodies in BodyLookup.cs or in the "Body" column here.

Can be run without parameters and will return NEO close approaches for Earth in the next 30 days with a max distance of 0.2 au.

Example output:

dotnet run --date-min 2099-12-30 --date-max 2100-01-01 --dist-max 0.2
Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2099
        Asteroid: 2019 XB
        Time: 23:02
        Distance: 0.084024385

Date: Thursday, December 31, 2099
        Asteroid: 2017 WS12
        Time: 05:03
        Distance: 0.14148647

Date: Thursday, December 31, 2099
        Asteroid: 2010 XB24
        Time: 21:00
        Distance: 0.1261884

Example output when defining a body other than Earth:

dotnet run --date-min 2099-12-25 --date-max 2100-01-01 --dist-max 0.2 --body Mercury
Date: Friday, December 25, 2099
        Asteroid: 2023 BY
        Time: 13:00
        Distance: 0.067190215
        Body: Mercury

Date: Sunday, December 27, 2099
        Asteroid: 2013 UG1
        Time: 11:48
        Distance: 0.04223703
        Body: Mercury

Date: Thursday, December 31, 2099
        Asteroid: 518847
        Time: 15:13
        Distance: 0.06283979
        Body: Mercury

Output Options

json

You can use the --output=json option to output json to stdout:

dotnet run --output=json
CloseAsteroids -o=json

Example output:

{
  "Timestamp": "2024-05-09T03:13:18.0804695+00:00",
  "Asteroids": [
    {
      "AsteroidDesignation": "410777",
      "OrbitID": "107",
      "JDTime": 2488063.083053552,
      "CloseApproachTime": "2099-12-25T14:00:00",
      "ApproachDistance": 0.1498545,
      "DistMin": 0.1495639,
      "DistMax": 0.15014513,
      "VRel": 21.763435,
      "VInf": 21.76277,
      "TSigUncertainty": "00:21",
      "AbsoluteMagnitude": 22.18
    },
    {
      "AsteroidDesignation": "620089",
      "OrbitID": "21",
      "JDTime": 2488064.309669096,
      "CloseApproachTime": "2099-12-26T19:26:00",
      "ApproachDistance": 0.07969794,
      "DistMin": 0.07968595,
      "DistMax": 0.079709955,
      "VRel": 34.890934,
      "VInf": 34.890156,
      "TSigUncertainty": "00:02",
      "AbsoluteMagnitude": 19.43
    }, [...]

table

You can use the --output=table option to output a delimiter-separated table to stdout:

dotnet run --output=table
CloseAsteroids -o table

Example output:

Date,Asteroid,Time,Distance,Body
2099-12-25T14:00:00,410777,14:00,0.1498545,Venus
2099-12-26T19:26:00,620089,19:26,0.07969794,Venus
2099-12-27T11:17:00,2023 BM4,11:17,0.06353373,Venus
2099-12-27T13:49:00,154658,13:49,0.12515673,Venus
2099-12-29T04:08:00,2015 NU13,04:08,0.06993372,Venus
2099-12-29T04:10:00,2016 EE157,04:10,0.110200495,Venus
2099-12-29T17:09:00,468910,17:09,0.076191306,Venus
2099-12-29T20:32:00,2017 EN,20:32,0.08239899,Venus
2099-12-31T05:30:00,2016 BC14,05:30,0.1080818,Venus

You can change the delimiter using the --delimiter option:

CloseAsteroids --date-min=2099-12-25 --date-max=2100-01-01 --dist-max=0.2 --body=Mars --output=table --delimiter="/"

Date/Asteroid/Time/Distance/Body
2099-12-25T09:08:00/612267/09:08/0.023517134/Mars
2099-12-29T09:28:00/2006 WE129/09:28/0.088202335/Mars

Running in Docker

Note

dotnet publish is setup in the Dockerfile to AOT compile the app for linux_x64 so your host will need to be compatible with this. If you're on ARM you either need to setup your environment for cross-compilation or change dotnet publish -r linux-x64 to dotnet publish -r linux-arm64.

You can build and run the image defined in this repo's Dockerfile by running the following:

docker build -t close-asteroids -f Dockerfile .
docker run close-asteroids

You can pass arguments using the ASTEROIDARGS env variable like so:

docker run -e ASTEROIDARGS="--date-min=2099-12-25 --date-max=2100-01-01 --dist-max=0.2 --body=Venus" close-asteroids

If you'd like to use the Alpine-based container, build and run the image like so:

docker build -t close-asteroids-alpine -f Dockerfile.Alpine .
docker run close-asteroids-alpine