About Sekhmet
Sekhmet is a rare neo. It swings within 0.667 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.
Rare neo 47 EP
Sekhmet
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 7 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Brilliantly reflective surface +10
- Crosses Earth's orbit +8
- Has a proper name +8
- Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit +8
- Near-Earth object +5
- Tiny fragment (<1 km) +4
- Steeply tilted orbit (i > 40°) +4
Total score 47
3 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Near-Earth object · +5
- Tiny fragment (<1 km) · +4
- Crosses Earth's orbit · +8
- Has a proper name · +8
- Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit · +8
- Brilliantly reflective surface · +10
- Steeply tilted orbit (i > 40°) · +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 0.67 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Venus.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 337 days.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.67 and 1.23 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 8.9 football pitches across.
Standing on it
- Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 0.56 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
By the numbers
- Size. Roughly 935 metres across.
Properties
- albedo
- 0.507
- aphelion au
- 1.23
- designation
- 5381
- diameter km
- 0.935
- eccentricity
- 0.2964
- full name
- 5381 Sekhmet (1991 JY)
- h mag
- 16.75
- inclination
- 48.97
- mean motion deg day
- 1.069
- moid au
- 0.113
- name
- Sekhmet
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- ATE
- perihelion au
- 0.667
- rotation period h
- 2.8233
- semi major au
- 0.9475
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Sekhmet 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 Sekhmet is a rare neo
Sekhmet scores 47 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 7 science badges — Near-Earth object, Tiny fragment (<1 km), Crosses Earth's orbit, Has a proper name, Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit, Brilliantly reflective surface and Steeply tilted orbit (i > 40°) — 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.