About Kenkennedy
Kenkennedy is a trash asteroid. It swings within 1.598 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
Kenkennedy
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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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 3.7 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 1.6 and 3.14 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is roughly 0.3× the height of Mount Everest.
Standing on it
- Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 1.56 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
By the numbers
- Size. Roughly 2.6 km across.
What's in a name
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Properties
- albedo
- 0.29
- aphelion au
- 3.14
- designation
- 17555
- diameter km
- 2.583
- eccentricity
- 0.3261
- full name
- 17555 Kenkennedy (1993 VC5)
- h mag
- 14.89
- inclination
- 21.59
- mean motion deg day
- 0.2699
- moid au
- 0.727
- name
- Kenkennedy
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- MCA
- perihelion au
- 1.598
- semi major au
- 2.371
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Kenkennedy 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 Kenkennedy is a trash asteroid
Kenkennedy 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.