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.
🌞Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 30.05 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Neptune.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 250 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 30.05 and 49.25 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 28.5× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 48.4 days.
🌍Against Earth. It is only 5% of Earth's width — you could pack about 8851 of it inside our planet.
Properties
aphelion au
49.2453
color
#a8705c
diameter km
616
eccentricity
0.242
inclination
19.6
name
Ixion
named
yes
num moons
0
orbit class
TNO
orbital period days
91600
perihelion au
30.0547
radius km
308
semi major au
39.65
About Ixion
Ixion is an epic dwarf planet. It completes an orbit every 91,600 days and swings within 30.055 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, Ixion 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 Ixion is an epic dwarf planet
Ixion 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.