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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 2.23 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 4.9 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.23 and 3.55 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 6.9× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 11.6 days.
Standing on it
🥶Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 20% as strong as Earth's.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 148 km across.
Properties
albedo
0.164
aphelion au
3.55
designation
471
diameter km
148.128
eccentricity
0.2295
full name
471 Papagena (A901 LA)
h mag
6.34
inclination
15.02
mean motion deg day
0.2006
moid au
1.26
name
Papagena
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
2.227
rotation period h
7.113
semi major au
2.89
spec taxonomy
S
spect
S
About Papagena
Papagena is a rare asteroid. It has spectral type S and swings within 2.227 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, Papagena 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 Papagena is a rare asteroid
Papagena 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.