This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 6 badges
77 pts · Epic
Epic78 pts → Anomaly
Giant body (>500 km)+22
Dwarf planet+16
Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU)+14
Trans-Neptunian object+12
Has a proper name+8
Has moons+5
Total score77
1 more point to reach Anomaly.
Badges
⚪Dwarf planet· +16
🏔️Giant body (>500 km)· +22
🏷️Has a proper name· +8
🌙Has moons· +5
🌨️Trans-Neptunian object· +12
🛤️Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU)· +14
✨ Trivia
Hard to believe
🥇Round under its own weight. Big enough that its own gravity has pulled it into a sphere — most of its neighbours are potato-shaped rubble.
What it actually is
🛸Its orbit family. A trans-Neptunian object from the Kuiper Belt, out where the Sun is little more than the brightest star in a very dark sky.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 555 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 33.55 and 101.45 AU from the Sun.
🌕One moon. It has exactly one natural satellite, which is unusual: most moons come in crowds.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 35% as wide as our Moon.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 3.2 months.
🌍Against Earth. It is only 10% of Earth's width — you could pack about 1112 of it inside our planet.
Properties
aphelion au
101.4525
color
#b0654a
diameter km
1230
eccentricity
0.503
inclination
30.7
name
Gonggong
named
yes
num moons
1
orbit class
TNO
orbital period days
202000
perihelion au
33.5475
radius km
615
semi major au
67.5
About Gonggong
Gonggong is an epic dwarf planet. It completes an orbit every 202,000 days and swings within 33.547 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A trans-Neptunian object from the Kuiper Belt, out where the Sun is little more than the brightest star in a very dark sky.
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Gonggong 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 Gonggong is an epic dwarf planet
Gonggong scores 77 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Dwarf planet, Giant body (>500 km), Has a proper name, Has moons, Trans-Neptunian object and Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU) — 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.