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Score breakdown
· 6 badges
42 pts · Rare
Rare50 pts → Epic
Metal-rich asteroid+14
Darker than charcoal+10
Notably bright (low H)+8
Has a proper name+8
Asteroid+1
Main-belt asteroid+1
Total score42
8 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
🪨Asteroid· +1
💡Notably bright (low H)· +8
🏷️Has a proper name· +8
🥌Main-belt asteroid· +1
🕶️Darker than charcoal· +10
⚙️Metal-rich asteroid· +14
✨ Trivia
What it actually is
🛸Its orbit family. A main-belt asteroid, one of millions circling between Mars and Jupiter. Despite the films, the belt is so empty that every spacecraft sent through it has crossed without aiming for anything.
🌞Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 2.75 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 5.1 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.75 and 3.19 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 3.8× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 6.5 days.
Standing on it
🥶Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 13% as strong as Earth's.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 82.8 km across.
Properties
albedo
0.0448
aphelion au
3.19
designation
348
diameter km
82.82
eccentricity
0.0728
full name
348 May (A892 WE)
h mag
9.58
inclination
9.76
mean motion deg day
0.1926
moid au
1.77
name
May
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
2.753
rotation period h
7.3812
semi major au
2.969
spec taxonomy
X
spect
X
About May
May is a rare asteroid. It has spectral type X and swings within 2.753 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A main-belt asteroid, one of millions circling between Mars and Jupiter. Despite the films, the belt is so empty that every spacecraft sent through it has crossed without aiming for anything.
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, May 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 May is a rare asteroid
May scores 42 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Asteroid, Notably bright (low H), Has a proper name, Main-belt asteroid, Darker than charcoal 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.