← Back to dex - Near-Earth object +5
- Tiny fragment (<1 km) +4
- Amor: shadows Earth's orbit from outside +4
- Catalogue designation only +0
Total score 13
2 more points to reach Common.
Badges
- 🌠 Near-Earth object · +5
- 🤏 Tiny fragment (<1 km) · +4
- 🔢 Catalogue designation only
- 💘 Amor: shadows Earth's orbit from outside · +4
✨ Trivia
What it actually is
- 🛸 Its orbit family. An Amor-class object. It approaches Earth's orbit from outside without ever crossing it — named for the asteroid Amor, which swept past at 16 million km in 1932.
- 🌞 Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 1.03 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mars.
- 🔁 One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 1.4 years.
- 🥏 How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 1.03 and 1.42 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- 🧱 Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 3.2 football pitches across.
Standing on it
- 🦘 Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 0.2 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
By the numbers
- 📐 Size. Roughly 337 metres across.
What's in a name
- 🔢 Designation. Known only by its catalogue designation — no name yet.
Properties
- albedo
- 0.062
- aphelion au
- 1.42
- designation
- 496837
- diameter km
- 0.337
- eccentricity
- 0.1615
- full name
- 496837 (1998 SB15)
- h mag
- 20.83
- inclination
- 15.63
- mean motion deg day
- 0.7256
- moid au
- 0.112
- name
- (496837) 1998 SB15
- number only
- yes
- orbit class
- AMO
- perihelion au
- 1.028
- semi major au
- 1.226
About (496837) 1998 SB15
(496837) 1998 SB15 is a trash neo. It swings within 1.028 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
An Amor-class object. It approaches Earth's orbit from outside without ever crossing it — named for the asteroid Amor, which swept past at 16 million km in 1932.
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, (496837) 1998 SB15 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 (496837) 1998 SB15 is a trash neo
(496837) 1998 SB15 scores 13 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Near-Earth object, Tiny fragment (<1 km), Catalogue designation only and Amor: shadows Earth's orbit from outside — 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.