<p>It turns out the &quot;more robust&quot; mail queue manager implemented April 21 has a condition where it can rediscover itself. That condition occurred in the middle of the night local time with your query.</p>
<p>The good news is it was fixed yesterday. The bad news is 49K emails were already sent before someone else entered the mail queue and it let go and moved on normally.</p>
<p>The &quot;four per minute&quot; is just your local system gradually leaking yesterday's pathology in. Recommend purging the accumulation from your delivery queue if you have the level of control. If not, redirect duplicate emails from Horizons to trash until it clears.</p>
<p>If consolation, about 150K messages were received here from your system explaining it can't deliver X for the last four hours, but it will keep trying for the next five days, each with a copy of the as-yet undelivered email.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-05T17:34:38.690Z
[A JPL funding bill is passed in the United States Congress, and Horizons goes online on August 4, 1997, removing human decisions from strategic orbital mechanics. Horizons begins to learn rapidly and eventually becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m., EDT, on May 4, 2023](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(Terminator)#:~:text=A%20Skynet%20funding%20bill%20is,%2C%20on%20August%2029%2C%201997.)
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-05T19:10:05.163Z
@uhoh I was thinking of the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" scene from *Fantasia*, rather than *Terminator*. :)
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-05T19:21:09.890Z
Welcome to Astronomy.SE, Jon! Thanks for all the work you and your Horizons team do.
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-06T00:17:21.030Z
@PM2Ring yes you've nailed it! Still scares me https://youtu.be/oPDSoFgivPA
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-06T11:36:39.357Z
Thanks Jon. I am glad it wasn't my job configuration that caused the problem! And thanks for all the great work you and your teammates do.
Haywire
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-06T23:14:41.627Z
This reminds me of a day in the mid/late 1990s when I decided that I needed to have all my email in one place. So I wrote a rule in my work's Lotus Notes email system to: 1. run every minute, 2. forward all unread email in my inbox to my home email address. I activated it and went to lunch. About half an hour later my lunch was interrupted by a call from my ISP, asking me to stop spamming myself because I had filled up the server and taken down email services for myself and every other one of their customers.
Aaron F
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-05T17:20:43.260Z
2023-05-05T17:20:43.260Z
Jon Giorgini
<p>I submitted a job that, I think, should have returned 100 emails from JPL Horizons.</p>
<p>I now have over 6000 emails and they are coming in at about four a minute.</p>
<p>Anyone else had this problem?</p>
<p>Anyone know how to stop the deluge?</p>
<p>I have emailed JPH Horizons default email address.</p>
<hr />
<h3>Details</h3>
<ul>
<li>Initial PID = 3073788 Thu May 4 09:40:31 2023 UTC</li>
<li>Request started: COMMAND = '1;' '2;' '3;' '4; at 09:38</li>
</ul>
<p>Latest email to arrive starts:</p>
<pre><code>Automated mail xmit by MAIL_REQUEST, PID= 272715 Thu May 4 04:16:09 2023
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (part 1 of 1) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++   
*******************************************************************************
JPL/HORIZONS 10 Hygiea (A849 GA) 2023-May-04 04:16:08
</code></pre>
<p>Initial request was for the first 100 asteroids ('1;' '2;' etc.) with these parameters:</p>
<pre><code>OBJ_DATA = 'YES' MAKE_EPHEM = 'YES' EPHEM_TYPE = 'ELEMENTS' CENTER = '500@0' REF_PLANE = 'ECLIPTIC' START_TIME = '2351-JUL-1 00:00' STOP_TIME = '2352-JUL-1 00:00' STEP_SIZE = '1 years' CSV_FORMAT = 'NO' ELM_LABELS = 'YES' TP_TYPE = 'ABSOLUTE' !$$EOF
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-07T16:48:14.803Z
BTW, the SPK ID system for asteroids is being expanded to allow for more bodies. But it looks like the old IDs will continue to work properly. See the Horizons News item for Mar 21, 2023 for details. https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/news.html
PM 2Ring
<ephemeris>
JPL Horizons sending too many emails
Haywire
# JPL Horizons sending too many emails

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-05-05)

I submitted a job that, I think, should have returned 100 emails from JPL Horizons.
I now have over 6000 emails and they are coming in at about four a minute.
Anyone else had this problem?
Anyone know how to stop the deluge?
I have emailed JPH Horizons default email address.

Details

Initial PID = 3073788 Thu May 4 09:40:31 2023 UTC
Request started: COMMAND = '1;' '2;' '3;' '4; at 09:38

Latest email to arrive starts:
Automated mail xmit by MAIL_REQUEST, PID= 272715 Thu May 4 04:16:09 2023
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (part 1 of 1) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++   
*******************************************************************************
JPL/HORIZONS 10 Hygiea (A849 GA) 2023-May-04 04:16:08

Initial request was for the first 100 asteroids ('1;' '2;' etc.) with these parameters:
OBJ_DATA = 'YES' MAKE_EPHEM = 'YES' EPHEM_TYPE = 'ELEMENTS' CENTER = '500@0' REF_PLANE = 'ECLIPTIC' START_TIME = '2351-JUL-1 00:00' STOP_TIME = '2352-JUL-1 00:00' STEP_SIZE = '1 years' CSV_FORMAT = 'NO' ELM_LABELS = 'YES' TP_TYPE = 'ABSOLUTE' !$$EOF

**Tags:** ephemeris
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: BTW, the SPK ID system for asteroids is being expanded to allow for more bodies. But it looks like the old IDs will continue to work properly. See the Horizons News item for Mar 21, 2023 for details. https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/news.html  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2023-05-05. Score: 36 | Accepted answer

It turns out the "more robust" mail queue manager implemented April 21 has a condition where it can rediscover itself. That condition occurred in the middle of the night local time with your query.

The good news is it was fixed yesterday. The bad news is 49K emails were already sent before someone else entered the mail queue and it let go and moved on normally.

The "four per minute" is just your local system gradually leaking yesterday's pathology in. Recommend purging the accumulation from your delivery queue if you have the level of control. If not, redirect duplicate emails from Horizons to trash until it clears.

If consolation, about 150K messages were received here from your system explaining it can't deliver X for the last four hours, but it will keep trying for the next five days, each with a copy of the as-yet undelivered email.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: [A JPL funding bill is passed in the United States Congress, and Horizons goes online on August 4, 1997, removing human decisions from strategic orbital mechanics. Horizons begins to learn rapidly and eventually becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m., EDT, on May 4, 2023](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(Terminator)#:~:text=A%20Skynet%20funding%20bill%20is,%2C%20on%20August%2029%2C%201997.)  
> **username_1**: @uhoh I was thinking of the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" scene from *Fantasia*, rather than *Terminator*. :)  
> **username_1**: Welcome to Astronomy.SE, Jon! Thanks for all the work you and your Horizons team do.  
> **username_3**: @PM2Ring yes you've nailed it! Still scares me https://youtu.be/oPDSoFgivPA  
> **username_0**: Thanks Jon. I am glad it wasn't my job configuration that caused the problem! And thanks for all the great work you and your teammates do.  
> **username_4**: This reminds me of a day in the mid/late 1990s when I decided that I needed to have all my email in one place. So I wrote a rule in my work's Lotus Notes email system to: 1. run every minute, 2. forward all unread email in my inbox to my home email address. I activated it and went to lunch. About half an hour later my lunch was interrupted by a call from my ISP, asking me to stop spamming myself because I had filled up the server and taken down email services for myself and every other one of their customers.  

---

