This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 4 badges
58 pts · Epic
Epic78 pts → Anomaly
Giant body (>500 km)+22
Dwarf planet+16
Trans-Neptunian object+12
Has a proper name+8
Total score58
20 more points to reach Anomaly.
Badges
⚪Dwarf planet· +16
🏔️Giant body (>500 km)· +22
🏷️Has a proper name· +8
🌨️Trans-Neptunian object· +12
✨ Trivia
Hard to believe
🥇Round under its own weight. Big enough that its own gravity has pulled it into a sphere — most of its neighbours are potato-shaped rubble.
What it actually is
🛸Its orbit family. A trans-Neptunian object from the Kuiper Belt, out where the Sun is little more than the brightest star in a very dark sky.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 281 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 40.61 and 45.19 AU from the Sun.
🌑No moons. It travels the Solar System entirely alone — not a single natural satellite.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 30.9× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 52.5 days.
🌍Against Earth. It is only 5% of Earth's width — you could pack about 6940 of it inside our planet.
Properties
aphelion au
45.1866
color
#b4795a
diameter km
668
eccentricity
0.0533
inclination
17.22
name
Varuna
named
yes
num moons
0
orbit class
TNO
orbital period days
102600
perihelion au
40.6134
radius km
334
semi major au
42.9
About Varuna
Varuna is an epic dwarf planet. It completes an orbit every 102,600 days and swings within 40.613 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A trans-Neptunian object from the Kuiper Belt, out where the Sun is little more than the brightest star in a very dark sky.
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Varuna 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 Varuna is an epic dwarf planet
Varuna scores 58 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 20 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Dwarf planet, Giant body (>500 km), Has a proper name and Trans-Neptunian object — 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.