Day 6, Part 2

#get the list of orbits into a two-dimensional array
input1 = open("input1.txt","r")
orbits = input1.read()
orbits = orbits.split("\n")
for i in range(len(orbits)):
    orbits[i] = orbits[i].split(")")    #orbits is a list of all orbits

list1 =[]
for x in range(len(orbits)):
    for y in range(len(orbits[x])):
        list1.append(orbits[x][y])
planets = list(set(list1))      #planets is a list of all planets, with no duplicates

for i in range(len(planets)-1):     #delete COM from planets
    if (planets[i]=="COM"):
        del(planets[i])

#recursive function to return an array of the orbits from a certain planet to COM
def findOrbits(orbitArray, world, array1):
    for i in orbitArray:

        localArray = array1
        endCheck = i[0]
        worldCheck = i[1]

        if(worldCheck==world):
            if(endCheck!="COM"):
                localArray.append(i)
                returnArray = findOrbits(orbitArray,endCheck,localArray)
            else:
                localArray.append(i)
                returnArray = localArray
                break

    return returnArray


#find where the orbits intersect and return the count it took to get there
def intersect(list1, list2):
    count = 0
    tempCount = 0
    for x in list1:
        for y in list2:
            if(x[0]==y[0] and x!=y):
                count = list1.index(x) + list2.index(y)
    return count

#get an array for the orbit lists of both YOU and SAN, going back to COM
youList = []
santaList = []

youList = findOrbits(orbits, "YOU", youList)
santaList = findOrbits(orbits, "SAN", santaList)

#get the total count of changes of orbit from YOU to SAN
print("The changes of orbit to get to Santa is: " + str(intersect(youList,santaList)))