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Score breakdown
· 6 badges
36 pts · Rare
Rare50 pts → Epic
Large body (100-500 km)+12
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 score36
14 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
🖤Carbonaceous — as old as the solar system· +6
✨ 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 2.2 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 2.2 and 4.12 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 4.7× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 8 days.
Standing on it
🥶Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 21% as strong as Earth's.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 102 km across.
Properties
albedo
0.054
aphelion au
4.12
designation
814
diameter km
102.229
eccentricity
0.3043
full name
814 Tauris (A916 AE)
h mag
8.73
inclination
21.79
mean motion deg day
0.1753
moid au
1.29
name
Tauris
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
2.2
rotation period h
36.081
semi major au
3.162
spec taxonomy
C
spect
C
About Tauris
Tauris is a rare asteroid. It has spectral type C and swings within 2.2 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, Tauris 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 Tauris is a rare asteroid
Tauris scores 36 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 14 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 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.