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Score breakdown
· 6 badges
46 pts · Rare
Rare50 pts → Epic
Giant body (>500 km)+22
Notably bright (low H)+8
Has a proper name+8
Carbonaceous — as old as the solar system+6
Asteroid+1
Main-belt asteroid+1
Total score46
4 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
🪨Asteroid· +1
🏔️Giant body (>500 km)· +22
💡Notably bright (low H)· +8
🏷️Has a proper name· +8
🥌Main-belt asteroid· +1
🖤Carbonaceous — as old as the solar system· +6
✨ 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 main-belt asteroid, one of millions circling between Mars and Jupiter. Despite the films, the belt is so empty that every spacecraft sent through it has crossed without aiming for anything.
🌞Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 2.13 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 4.6 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.13 and 3.41 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 23.8× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 40.3 days.
Standing on it
🥶Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 22% as strong as Earth's.
Properties
albedo
0.155
aphelion au
3.41
designation
2
diameter km
513
eccentricity
0.2307
full name
2 Pallas (A802 FA)
h mag
4.12
inclination
34.93
mean motion deg day
0.2138
moid au
1.23
name
Pallas
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
2.131
rotation period h
7.8132
semi major au
2.77
spec taxonomy
B
spect
B
About Pallas
Pallas is a rare asteroid. It has spectral type B and swings within 2.131 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A main-belt asteroid, one of millions circling between Mars and Jupiter. Despite the films, the belt is so empty that every spacecraft sent through it has crossed without aiming for anything.
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Pallas 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 Pallas is a rare asteroid
Pallas scores 46 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Asteroid, Giant body (>500 km), Notably bright (low H), Has a proper name, Main-belt asteroid and Carbonaceous — as old as the solar system — 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