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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 2.8 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 5 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.8 and 3.02 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is roughly 6.2× the height of Mount Everest.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 4.3 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 54.8 km across.
Properties
albedo
0.131
aphelion au
3.02
designation
558
diameter km
54.811
eccentricity
0.0382
full name
558 Carmen (A905 CK)
h mag
9.03
inclination
8.37
mean motion deg day
0.1987
moid au
1.82
name
Carmen
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
2.798
rotation period h
11.387
semi major au
2.909
spec taxonomy
M
spect
M
About Carmen
Carmen is an uncommon asteroid. It has spectral type M and swings within 2.798 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, Carmen 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 Carmen is an uncommon asteroid
Carmen 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.