About Pasiphae
Pasiphae is a rare moon.
It orbits about 5.2 AU from the Sun — roughly 5.2 times Earth's distance.
Rare moon 44 EP
Pasiphae
Position computed live · planets
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 3 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Orbits backwards around its planet +20
- Moon +16
- Has a proper name +8
Total score 44
6 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Moon · +16
- Has a proper name · +8
- Orbits backwards around its planet · +20
Trivia
What it actually is
- Its address. It orbits about 5.2 AU from the Sun — roughly 5.2 times Earth's distance.
- Around its planet. It circles its planet at a distance of 23.6 million km, roughly 61.5 times the Earth–Moon gap.
Sense of scale
- Ground to cover. Its whole surface adds up to about 11.3 thousand km² — roughly 7.2 times the area of Greater London.
- Walk around it. Walking right round its equator, eight hours a day, would take about 4.7 days.
Time and light
- Sunrise is late. Sunlight takes about 43.3 minutes to get there, against eight minutes to reach us.
Standing on it
- Sunlight there. Sunlight is about 27.1 times weaker there than at Earth.
- A year here. It rides around the Sun with its planet, one full lap every 11.9 Earth years.
By the numbers
- Size. About 60 km across — about 2.8× the length of Manhattan island.
Properties
- color
- #6d645b
- diameter km
- 60
- name
- Pasiphae
- named
- yes
- radius km
- 30
- retrograde orbit
- yes
- tidally locked
- no
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Pasiphae 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 Pasiphae is a rare moon
Pasiphae scores 44 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Moon, Has a proper name and Orbits backwards around its planet — 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.