This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 6 badges
25 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon34 pts → Rare
Crosses Earth's orbit+8
Near-Earth object+5
Tiny fragment (<1 km)+4
Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit+4
Stony asteroid+4
Catalogue designation only+0
Total score25
9 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
🌠Near-Earth object· +5
🤏Tiny fragment (<1 km)· +4
🎯Crosses Earth's orbit· +8
🔢Catalogue designation only
🏛️Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit· +4
🧗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 Apollo-class object: its orbit is wider than Earth's but crosses it. Most known Earth-crossers belong to this family.
🌞Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 0.76 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Earth.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 1.1 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.76 and 1.35 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 6.3 football pitches across.
Standing on it
🦘Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 0.4 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 657 metres across.
Properties
albedo
0.383
aphelion au
1.35
designation
219071
diameter km
0.657
eccentricity
0.282
full name
219071 (1997 US9)
h mag
17.2
inclination
20.02
mean motion deg day
0.9124
moid au
0.249
name
(219071) 1997 US9
number only
yes
orbit class
APO
perihelion au
0.756
rotation period h
3.319
semi major au
1.053
spec taxonomy
Q
spect
Q
About (219071) 1997 US9
(219071) 1997 US9 is an uncommon neo. It has spectral type Q and swings within 0.756 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.
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, (219071) 1997 US9 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 (219071) 1997 US9 is an uncommon neo
(219071) 1997 US9 scores 25 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Near-Earth object, Tiny fragment (<1 km), Crosses Earth's orbit, Catalogue designation only, Apollo: crosses 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.