About Zomba
Zomba is a trash asteroid. It swings within 1.6 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A Mars-crosser: its orbit reaches in far enough to cut clean across the path of Mars.
Trash asteroid 14 EP
Zomba
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesTrash 15 pts → Common
- Has a proper name +8
- Mars-crosser +5
- Asteroid +1
Total score 14
1 more point to reach Common.
Badges
- Asteroid · +1
- Has a proper name · +8
- Mars-crosser · +5
Trivia
What it actually is
- Its orbit family. A Mars-crosser: its orbit reaches in far enough to cut clean across the path of Mars.
- Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 1.6 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 3.3 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 1.6 and 2.79 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is roughly 1.2× the height of Mount Everest.
- Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 19.4 hours.
By the numbers
- Estimated size. Nobody has measured its size directly. Assuming it reflects light like a typical asteroid, its brightness implies something roughly 10.3 km across.
What's in a name
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 2.79
- designation
- 1468
- eccentricity
- 0.2715
- full name
- 1468 Zomba (1938 PA)
- h mag
- 12.69
- inclination
- 9.94
- mean motion deg day
- 0.303
- moid au
- 0.592
- name
- Zomba
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- MCA
- perihelion au
- 1.6
- rotation period h
- 2.773
- semi major au
- 2.196
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Zomba 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 Zomba is a trash asteroid
Zomba scores 14 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Asteroid, Has a proper name and Mars-crosser — 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.