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Score breakdown
· 5 badges
32 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon34 pts → Rare
Metal-rich asteroid+14
Notably bright (low H)+8
Has a proper name+8
Asteroid+1
Main-belt asteroid+1
Total score32
2 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
🪨Asteroid· +1
💡Notably bright (low H)· +8
🏷️Has a proper name· +8
🥌Main-belt asteroid· +1
⚙️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 1.94 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 4.4 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 1.94 and 3.42 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 3× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 5.1 days.
Standing on it
🥶Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 27% as strong as Earth's.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 65.1 km across.
Properties
albedo
0.202
aphelion au
3.42
designation
516
diameter km
65.144
eccentricity
0.2757
full name
516 Amherstia (A903 SG)
h mag
8.35
inclination
12.96
mean motion deg day
0.225
moid au
0.98
name
Amherstia
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
1.939
rotation period h
7.4842
semi major au
2.677
spec taxonomy
X
spect
X
About Amherstia
Amherstia is an uncommon asteroid. It has spectral type X and swings within 1.939 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, Amherstia 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 Amherstia is an uncommon asteroid
Amherstia scores 32 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Asteroid, Notably bright (low H), Has a proper name, Main-belt asteroid 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.