This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 6 badges
71 pts · Epic
Epic78 pts → Anomaly
Giant body (>500 km)+22
Dwarf planet+16
Trans-Neptunian object+12
Has a proper name+8
Has a ring system+8
Has moons+5
Total score71
7 more points to reach Anomaly.
Badges
⚪Dwarf planet· +16
🏔️Giant body (>500 km)· +22
🏷️Has a proper name· +8
⭕Has a ring system· +8
🌙Has moons· +5
🌨️Trans-Neptunian object· +12
✨ 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 289 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 41.99 and 45.39 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 31% as wide as our Moon.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 85.6 days.
🌍Against Earth. It is only 9% of Earth's width — you could pack about 1597 of it inside our planet.
Properties
aphelion au
45.3939
color
#b48a6a
diameter km
1090
eccentricity
0.039
inclination
7.99
name
Quaoar
named
yes
num moons
1
orbit class
TNO
orbital period days
105500
perihelion au
41.9861
radius km
545
rings
yes
semi major au
43.69
About Quaoar
Quaoar is an epic dwarf planet. It completes an orbit every 105,500 days and swings within 41.986 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, Quaoar 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 Quaoar is an epic dwarf planet
Quaoar scores 71 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 7 points 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 a ring system, Has moons and Trans-Neptunian object — 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.
📷 Real photo