precovery

thumb|Jupiter's moon Valetudo (moon)|Valetudo was discovered in 2016, but a number of precovery images have been identified since, including this one taken on 28 February 2003 by the [[Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope, in which Valetudo's position is marked by the two orange bars.]]

In astronomy, precovery (short for pre-discovery recovery) is the process of finding the image of a celestial object in images or photographic plates predating its discovery, typically for the purpose of calculating a more accurate orbit. This happens most often with minor planets, but sometimes a comet, a dwarf planet, a natural satellite, or a star is found in old archived images; even exoplanet precovery observations have been obtained. "Precovery" refers to a pre-discovery image; "recovery" refers to imaging of a body which was lost to our view (as behind the Sun), but has become visible again (also see lost minor planet and lost comet).