About Selqet
Selqet is an uncommon neo. It swings within 0.613 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 29 EP
Selqet
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 4 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
Total score 29
5 more points 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
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 0.61 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Venus.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 332 days.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.61 and 1.26 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 5.5 football pitches across.
Standing on it
- Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 0.35 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
By the numbers
- Estimated size. Nobody has measured its size directly. Assuming it reflects light like a typical asteroid, its brightness implies something roughly 573 metres across.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 1.26
- designation
- 136818
- eccentricity
- 0.3463
- full name
- 136818 Selqet (1997 MW1)
- h mag
- 18.96
- inclination
- 12.78
- mean motion deg day
- 1.086
- moid au
- 0.113
- name
- Selqet
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- ATE
- perihelion au
- 0.613
- semi major au
- 0.9375
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Selqet 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 Selqet is an uncommon neo
Selqet scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Near-Earth object, Crosses Earth's orbit, Has a proper name and Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit — 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.