The Palomar Planet Crossing Asteroid Survey (PCAS) was initiated by Eleanor F. Helin

Eleanor F. Helin

Eleanor Francis "Glo" Helin was an American astronomer. She was principal investigator of the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking program of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Some sources give her name as Eleanor Kay Helin...

 and Eugene M. Shoemaker in 1973. This program is responsible for the discovery of several thousand asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

s of all types including a large number of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs), over 200 high inclination

Inclination

Inclination in general is the angle between a reference plane and another plane or axis of direction.-Orbits:The inclination is one of the six orbital parameters describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit...

 objects, other rare and unique orbital types of asteroids and 20 comet

Comet

A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...

s. PCAS ran for nearly 25 years until June 1995. It is the immediate predecessor of the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking

Near Earth Asteroid Tracking

Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking is a program run by NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory to discover near-Earth objects. The NEAT project began in December 1995 and ran until April 2007.-History:...

(NEAT) program.