This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 5 badges
31 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon34 pts → Rare
Metal-rich asteroid+14
Crosses Earth's orbit+8
Near-Earth object+5
Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit+4
Catalogue designation only+0
Total score31
3 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
🌠Near-Earth object· +5
🎯Crosses Earth's orbit· +8
🔢Catalogue designation only
🏛️Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit· +4
⚙️Metal-rich asteroid· +14
✨ 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 0.5 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Venus.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 2.9 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.5 and 3.54 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 9.2 football pitches across.
Standing on it
🔥Sunlight there. At closest approach the Sun beats down about 4 times harder than it ever does on Earth.
🦘Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 0.58 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
Properties
aphelion au
3.54
designation
524392
eccentricity
0.7541
full name
524392 (2002 AU5)
h mag
17.83
inclination
9.17
mean motion deg day
0.3433
moid au
0.136
name
(524392) 2002 AU5
number only
yes
orbit class
APO
perihelion au
0.497
semi major au
2.02
spec taxonomy
X
spect
X
About (524392) 2002 AU5
(524392) 2002 AU5 is an uncommon neo. It has spectral type X and swings within 0.497 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, (524392) 2002 AU5 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 (524392) 2002 AU5 is an uncommon neo
(524392) 2002 AU5 scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Near-Earth object, Crosses Earth's orbit, Catalogue designation only, Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit and Metal-rich 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.