← Back to dex - Centaur: adrift between the giants +20
- Has a proper name +8
- Kuiper-belt object +5
Total score 33
1 more point to reach Rare.
Badges
- ❄️ Kuiper-belt object · +5
- 🏷️ Has a proper name · +8
- 🦌 Centaur: adrift between the giants · +20
✨ 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 2.79 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
- 🔁 One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 14.2 years.
- 🥏 How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.79 and 8.93 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- 🧱 Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is roughly 0.6× the height of Mount Everest.
Standing on it
- 🥶 Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 13% as strong as Earth's.
By the numbers
- 📐 Estimated size. Nobody has measured its size directly. Assuming it reflects light like a typical asteroid, its brightness implies something roughly 5.2 km across.
What's in a name
- 🏷️ Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 8.93
- designation
- 365756
- eccentricity
- 0.5237
- full name
- 365756 ISON (2010 WZ71)
- h mag
- 14.18
- inclination
- 20.25
- mean motion deg day
- 0.0695
- moid au
- 1.9
- name
- ISON
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- CEN
- perihelion au
- 2.79
- semi major au
- 5.858
About ISON
ISON is an uncommon kbo. It swings within 2.79 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, ISON 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 ISON is an uncommon kbo
ISON scores 33 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Kuiper-belt object, Has a proper name and Centaur: adrift between the giants — 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.