About Cruithne
Cruithne is an uncommon neo. It has spectral type Q and swings within 0.484 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
Its orbit genuinely intersects Earth's track around the Sun. The two paths cross; only the timing keeps them apart.
Uncommon neo 33 EP
Cruithne
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 5 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Crosses Earth's orbit +8
- Has a proper name +8
- Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit +8
- Near-Earth object +5
- Stony asteroid +4
Total score 33
1 more point to reach Rare.
Badges
- Near-Earth object · +5
- Crosses Earth's orbit · +8
- Has a proper name · +8
- Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit · +8
- Stony asteroid · +4
Trivia
What makes it special
- It crosses our path. Its orbit genuinely intersects Earth's track around the Sun. The two paths cross; only the timing keeps them apart.
What it actually is
- Its orbit family. An Aten-class object, spending most of its time inside Earth's orbit and crossing ours from the sunward side — which makes this family wretchedly hard to spot against the daylight.
- Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 0.48 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Venus.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 364 days.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.48 and 1.51 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is roughly 0.2× the height of Mount Everest.
Standing on it
- Sunlight there. At closest approach the Sun beats down about 4.3 times harder than it ever does on Earth.
- Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 1.25 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
Properties
- albedo
- 0.365
- aphelion au
- 1.51
- designation
- 3753
- diameter km
- 2.071
- eccentricity
- 0.5149
- full name
- 3753 Cruithne (1986 TO)
- h mag
- 15.42
- inclination
- 19.8
- mean motion deg day
- 0.9889
- moid au
- 0.0707
- name
- Cruithne
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- ATE
- perihelion au
- 0.484
- rotation period h
- 27.3099
- semi major au
- 0.9978
- spec taxonomy
- Q
- spect
- Q
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Cruithne is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. Because it moves against the background stars, the live position panel on this page tracks where it is right now. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
Why Cruithne is an uncommon neo
Cruithne scores 33 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Near-Earth object, Crosses Earth's orbit, Has a proper name, Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit and Stony asteroid — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.