This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 7 badges
83 pts · Anomaly
Anomaly120 pts → Mythic
Chiron, the first centaur found+24
Centaur: adrift between the giants+20
Large body (100-500 km)+12
Notably bright (low H)+8
Has a proper name+8
Carbonaceous — as old as the solar system+6
Kuiper-belt object+5
Total score83
37 more points to reach Mythic.
Badges
❄️Kuiper-belt object· +5
🗿Large body (100-500 km)· +12
💡Notably bright (low H)· +8
🏷️Has a proper name· +8
🦌Centaur: adrift between the giants· +20
🖤Carbonaceous — as old as the solar system· +6
🏇Chiron, the first centaur found· +24
✨ Trivia
What it actually is
🛸Its orbit family. A centaur, wandering between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune on a path nothing can stabilise. Half asteroid and half comet, and gone from this orbit within a few million years.
🌞Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 8.49 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Saturn.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 50.6 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 8.48 and 18.88 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 7.7× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 13 days.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 166 km across.
What's in a name
🏷️Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Properties
albedo
0.15
aphelion au
18.88
designation
2060
diameter km
166
eccentricity
0.3798
full name
2060 Chiron (1977 UB)
h mag
5.54
inclination
6.93
mean motion deg day
0.0195
moid au
7.49
name
Chiron
named
yes
orbit class
CEN
perihelion au
8.487
rotation period h
5.918
semi major au
13.68
spec taxonomy
Cb
spect
Cb
About Chiron
Chiron is an anomaly kbo. It has spectral type Cb and swings within 8.487 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A centaur, wandering between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune on a path nothing can stabilise. Half asteroid and half comet, and gone from this orbit within a few million years.
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Chiron 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 Chiron is an anomaly kbo
Chiron scores 83 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the anomaly tier. Another 37 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 7 science badges — Kuiper-belt object, Large body (100-500 km), Notably bright (low H), Has a proper name, Centaur: adrift between the giants, Carbonaceous — as old as the solar system and Chiron, the first centaur found — 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.
📷 Real photo