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Score breakdown
· 7 badges
52 pts · Epic
Epic78 pts → Anomaly
Large body (100-500 km)+12
Primitive outer-belt type+12
Darker than charcoal+10
Notably bright (low H)+8
Has a proper name+8
Asteroid+1
Main-belt asteroid+1
Total score52
26 more points to reach Anomaly.
Badges
🪨Asteroid· +1
🗿Large body (100-500 km)· +12
💡Notably bright (low H)· +8
🏷️Has a proper name· +8
🥌Main-belt asteroid· +1
🕶️Darker than charcoal· +10
🦖Primitive outer-belt type· +12
✨ 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 2.57 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 4.5 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.57 and 2.9 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 5.8× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 9.8 days.
Standing on it
🥶Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 15% as strong as Earth's.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 125 km across.
Properties
albedo
0.036
aphelion au
2.9
designation
203
diameter km
124.592
eccentricity
0.0613
full name
203 Pompeja (A879 SA)
h mag
8.92
inclination
3.17
mean motion deg day
0.2177
moid au
1.58
name
Pompeja
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
2.569
rotation period h
24.052
semi major au
2.737
spec taxonomy
DCX:
spect
DCX:
About Pompeja
Pompeja is an epic asteroid. It has spectral type DCX: and swings within 2.569 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, Pompeja 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 Pompeja is an epic asteroid
Pompeja scores 52 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 26 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 7 science badges — Asteroid, Large body (100-500 km), Notably bright (low H), Has a proper name, Main-belt asteroid, Darker than charcoal and Primitive outer-belt type — 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.