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Score breakdown
· 6 badges
34 pts · Rare
Rare50 pts → Epic
Large body (100-500 km)+12
Notably bright (low H)+8
Has a proper name+8
Stony asteroid+4
Asteroid+1
Main-belt asteroid+1
Total score34
16 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
🪨Asteroid· +1
🗿Large body (100-500 km)· +12
💡Notably bright (low H)· +8
🏷️Has a proper name· +8
🥌Main-belt asteroid· +1
🧗Stony asteroid· +4
✨ Trivia
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 2.36 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 2.36 and 3.19 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 5.6× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 9.5 days.
Standing on it
🥶Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 18% as strong as Earth's.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 121 km across.
Properties
albedo
0.1763
aphelion au
3.19
designation
28
diameter km
120.9
eccentricity
0.149
full name
28 Bellona (A854 EA)
h mag
7.21
inclination
9.42
mean motion deg day
0.2129
moid au
1.38
name
Bellona
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
2.364
rotation period h
15.706
semi major au
2.778
spec taxonomy
S
spect
S
About Bellona
Bellona is a rare asteroid. It has spectral type S and swings within 2.364 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, Bellona 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 Bellona is a rare asteroid
Bellona scores 34 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 16 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Asteroid, Large body (100-500 km), Notably bright (low H), Has a proper name, Main-belt asteroid and Stony 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.