About David Hughes
David Hughes is an uncommon asteroid. It has spectral type Xe and swings within 1.469 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A Mars-crosser: its orbit reaches in far enough to cut clean across the path of Mars.
Uncommon asteroid 28 EP
David Hughes
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 4 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Metal-rich asteroid +14
- Has a proper name +8
- Mars-crosser +5
- Asteroid +1
Total score 28
6 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Asteroid · +1
- Has a proper name · +8
- Mars-crosser · +5
- Metal-rich asteroid · +14
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 1.47 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mars.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 2.3 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 1.47 and 1.98 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is roughly 0.5× the height of Mount Everest.
By the numbers
- Estimated size. Nobody has measured its size directly. Assuming it reflects light like a typical asteroid, its brightness implies something roughly 4.5 km across.
What's in a name
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 1.98
- designation
- 4205
- eccentricity
- 0.1491
- full name
- 4205 David Hughes (1985 YP)
- h mag
- 14.48
- inclination
- 16.48
- mean motion deg day
- 0.4345
- moid au
- 0.553
- name
- David Hughes
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- MCA
- perihelion au
- 1.469
- rotation period h
- 24
- semi major au
- 1.726
- spec taxonomy
- Xe
- spect
- Xe
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, David Hughes 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 David Hughes is an uncommon asteroid
David Hughes scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Asteroid, Has a proper name, Mars-crosser and Metal-rich asteroid — 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.