NASA integration

Overview

The NASA tool provides access to multiple NASA open APIs: Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) with optional image download, Near-Earth Object (NEO) asteroid tracking via feed/lookup/browse endpoints, nine DONKI space weather event types (CME, HSS, IPS, MPC, notifications, RBE, SEP, solar flare, WSA+Enlil), Earth Assets metadata, and Earth Imagery satellite image download. Binary data is produced for APOD image downloads and Earth Imagery. All endpoints are read-only GET requests authenticated via api_key query parameter.

Node Type

Action (Binary) — handles file/binary data operations

Input / Output

Direction	Port(s)
Input	Input
Output	Output, Error

Credentials

This tool requires NASA API credentials. See the Credentials Guide for setup instructions.

Resources

Resource	Value
Asteroid Neo-Browse	asteroidNeoBrowse
Asteroid Neo-Feed	asteroidNeoFeed
Asteroid Neo-Lookup	asteroidNeoLookup
Astronomy Picture of the Day	astronomyPictureOfTheDay
DONKI Coronal Mass Ejection	donkiCoronalMassEjection
DONKI High Speed Stream	donkiHighSpeedStream
DONKI Interplanetary Shock	donkiInterplanetaryShock
DONKI Magnetopause Crossing	donkiMagnetopauseCrossing
DONKI Notification	donkiNotifications
DONKI Radiation Belt Enhancement	donkiRadiationBeltEnhancement
DONKI Solar Energetic Particle	donkiSolarEnergeticParticle
DONKI Solar Flare	donkiSolarFlare
DONKI WSA+Enlil Simulation	donkiWsaEnlilSimulation
Earth Asset	earthAssets
Earth Imagery	earthImagery

Operations

Operation	Value	Description
Get	get	Retrieve data from the selected resource — offered by every resource except Asteroid Neo-Browse
Get Many	getAll	Browse the overall asteroid dataset — the only operation offered by Asteroid Neo-Browse

Parameters

Astronomy Picture of the Day: Get

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Download Image	boolean	No	true	Whether to download the APOD image as binary data. Only applies when media_type is “image”.
Binary Property	string	Yes	data	Name of the binary property to store the downloaded image in. Names are case-sensitive — see the upstream node’s Binary Data panel for the exact names to use. (shown when Download Image is true)
Additional Fields	collection	No	{}	Optional query fields for this resource.
— Date	string	No	—	Date of the APOD (defaults to today). Format YYYY-MM-DD. Supports expressions.

Asteroid Neo-Feed: Get

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Additional Fields	collection	No	{}	Optional query fields for this resource.
— Start Date	string	No	—	Start of date range. Format YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to today. Supports expressions.
— End Date	string	No	—	End of date range. Format YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to today. Supports expressions.

Asteroid Neo-Lookup: Get

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Asteroid ID	string	Yes	—	The NASA SPK-ID of the asteroid to look up. Supports expressions like {{ $json.spkId }}.
Additional Fields	collection	No	{}	Optional query fields for this resource.
— Include Close Approach Data	boolean	No	false	Whether to include all close approach data in the asteroid lookup.

Asteroid Neo-Browse: Get Many

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Return All	boolean	No	false	Whether to return all results or only up to a given limit. Returning all pages through the whole NASA asteroid dataset and can take a long time.
Limit	number	No	20	Max number of results to return. (shown when Return All is false)

DONKI Space Weather Events: Get

Applies to donkiCoronalMassEjection, donkiHighSpeedStream, donkiMagnetopauseCrossing, donkiNotifications, donkiRadiationBeltEnhancement, donkiSolarEnergeticParticle, donkiSolarFlare and donkiWsaEnlilSimulation — they all take the same fields.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Additional Fields	collection	No	{}	Optional query fields for this resource.
— Start Date	string	No	—	Start of date range. Format YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to 30 days ago. Supports expressions.
— End Date	string	No	—	End of date range. Format YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to today. Supports expressions.

DONKI Interplanetary Shock: Get

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Additional Fields	collection	No	{}	Optional query fields for this resource.
— Start Date	string	No	—	Start of date range. Format YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to 30 days ago. Supports expressions.
— End Date	string	No	—	End of date range. Format YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to today. Supports expressions.
— Location	options	No	ALL	Location filter for interplanetary shocks.
				Options: ALL, earth, MESSENGER, STEREO A, STEREO B
— Catalog	options	No	ALL	Catalog filter for interplanetary shocks.
				Options: ALL, SWRC_CATALOG, WINSLOW_MESSENGER_ICME_CATALOG

Earth Asset: Get

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Latitude	number	No	—	Latitude for the location of the image. Required in practice — the item fails without it. Supports expressions.
Longitude	number	No	—	Longitude for the location of the image. Required in practice — the item fails without it. Supports expressions.
Additional Fields	collection	No	{}	Optional query fields for this resource.
— Date	string	No	—	Date of the image. Format YYYY-MM-DD. Supports expressions.
— Degrees	number	No	—	Width and height of the image in degrees. Defaults to 0.025.

Earth Imagery: Get

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Latitude	number	No	—	Latitude for the location of the image. Required in practice — the item fails without it. Supports expressions.
Longitude	number	No	—	Longitude for the location of the image. Required in practice — the item fails without it. Supports expressions.
Binary Property	string	Yes	data	Name of the binary property to store the Earth satellite image in. Names are case-sensitive — see the upstream node’s Binary Data panel for the exact names to use.
Additional Fields	collection	No	{}	Optional query fields for this resource.
— Date	string	No	—	Date of the image. Format YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to today. Supports expressions.
— Degrees	number	No	—	Width and height of the image in degrees. Defaults to 0.025.

All Operations

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Max Concurrency	number	No	10	Maximum number of items to process concurrently.

Output Data

Every resource merges its result onto the input item JSON — the incoming fields pass through unchanged. One output item per input item: no resource fans out, so lists arrive as arrays on a single item. Binary from the input item is forwarded, and the two image resources add a new binary property alongside it.

Resource	Fields merged onto the item
astronomyPictureOfTheDay	The whole APOD response (title, explanation, media_type, url, hdurl, date, and so on). With Download Image on and media_type equal to image, the picture is also written to the named Binary Property, keeping the file name from the source URL.
asteroidNeoFeed	asteroids (array of near-Earth objects) and element_count.
asteroidNeoLookup	The whole asteroid record. close_approach_data is stripped out unless Include Close Approach Data is on.
asteroidNeoBrowse	asteroids (array) and totalCount.
donki* (all nine)	events (array of the event records the API returned) and eventCount.
earthAssets	The whole Earth Assets response for that coordinate.
earthImagery	lat, lon, date, dim and fileSize. The satellite image itself is written to the named Binary Property as earth_imagery_{lat}_{lon}_{date}.png.

Because lists come back as arrays on one item, use a Split Out node on asteroids or events when you want one item per record. Reference the result downstream by expression, e.g. {{ $json.eventCount }} or {{ $json.asteroids }}.

Example Configuration

Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, image included:

{
  "type": "nasa",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "astronomyPictureOfTheDay",
    "operation": "get",
    "download": true,
    "binaryPropertyName": "apodImage"
  }
}

APOD for a specific date, taken from the incoming item:

{
  "type": "nasa",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "astronomyPictureOfTheDay",
    "operation": "get",
    "download": true,
    "binaryPropertyName": "apodImage",
    "additionalFields": {
      "date": "{{ $json.date }}"
    }
  }
}

Look up a single asteroid by SPK-ID, including its close approaches:

{
  "type": "nasa",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "asteroidNeoLookup",
    "operation": "get",
    "asteroidId": "{{ $json.spkId }}",
    "additionalFields": {
      "includeCloseApproachData": true
    }
  }
}

Browse the asteroid dataset, capped at 50 records:

{
  "type": "nasa",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "asteroidNeoBrowse",
    "operation": "getAll",
    "returnAll": false,
    "limit": 50
  }
}

Solar flare events for a month:

{
  "type": "nasa",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "donkiSolarFlare",
    "operation": "get",
    "additionalFields": {
      "startDate": "2024-01-01",
      "endDate": "2024-01-31"
    }
  }
}

Interplanetary shocks near Earth from a single catalog:

{
  "type": "nasa",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "donkiInterplanetaryShock",
    "operation": "get",
    "additionalFields": {
      "startDate": "2024-01-01",
      "endDate": "2024-01-31",
      "location": "earth",
      "catalog": "SWRC_CATALOG"
    }
  }
}

Download Earth satellite imagery for coordinates carried on the item:

{
  "type": "nasa",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "earthImagery",
    "operation": "get",
    "lat": "{{ $json.lat }}",
    "lon": "{{ $json.lon }}",
    "binaryPropertyName": "earthImage",
    "additionalFields": {
      "date": "2024-01-15",
      "dim": 0.1
    }
  }
}

Error Handling

Mode	Behavior
stop	Halts workflow on first error
continue	Skips failed items, passes successful ones through
errorPort	Routes failed items to Error output port

Tips

This tool retrieves data from NASA’s open APIs, including astronomy images, asteroid tracking, space weather events, and Earth satellite imagery. It is suitable when you need to access specific NASA datasets like the Astronomy Picture of the Day, asteroid feeds, or space weather event details, especially when image downloads are required. The tool produces either structured data about celestial objects and events or binary image data for astronomy pictures and Earth satellite imagery.

Behavior notes

• Dates default sensibly. APOD, Earth Imagery and the asteroid feed default to today; DONKI resources default to the last 30 days. Any date you supply is normalised to YYYY-MM-DD, so an ISO timestamp or a date picked up from an upstream item works too.
• Asteroid Neo-Feed returns one day’s objects. Even with a multi-day range, asteroids carries the objects for the first date in the response — narrow the range to the day you care about rather than expecting the whole window in one array.
• Return All really means all. On Asteroid Neo-Browse it pages through the entire dataset 20 records at a time and does not stop until NASA runs out of pages. Leave it off and set a Limit unless you genuinely want everything.
• APOD is not always a picture. Some days are videos; the download is skipped when media_type is not image, and the item still carries the APOD metadata.
• Latitude and Longitude are mandatory for the Earth resources even though the editor does not mark them required — an item without both fails.

Common patterns

• Daily astronomy content — use astronomyPictureOfTheDay with an optional date and the image download for editorial or educational workflows.
• Space weather monitoring — use the DONKI resources with a date range to track events that could affect satellites or ground systems.
• Asteroid tracking — combine asteroidNeoFeed for recent activity with asteroidNeoLookup for the detail on a specific object.
• Earth observation — pair earthAssets (what imagery exists) with earthImagery (fetch the picture) for the same coordinates.