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Score breakdown
· 7 badges
54 pts · Epic
Epic78 pts → Anomaly
Metal-rich asteroid+14
Large body (100-500 km)+12
Darker than charcoal+10
Notably bright (low H)+8
Has a proper name+8
Asteroid+1
Main-belt asteroid+1
Total score54
24 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
⚙️Metal-rich asteroid· +14
✨ 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 2.99 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 5.6 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.99 and 3.32 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 8.3× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 14.1 days.
Standing on it
🥶Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 11% as strong as Earth's.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 179 km across.
Properties
albedo
0.028
aphelion au
3.32
designation
209
diameter km
179.008
eccentricity
0.052
full name
209 Dido (A879 UC)
h mag
8.3
inclination
7.17
mean motion deg day
0.176
moid au
1.99
name
Dido
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
2.99
rotation period h
5.7366
semi major au
3.154
spec taxonomy
Xc
spect
Xc
About Dido
Dido is an epic asteroid. It has spectral type Xc and swings within 2.99 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, Dido 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 Dido is an epic asteroid
Dido scores 54 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 24 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 Metal-rich 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.