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Score breakdown
· 5 badges
30 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon34 pts → Rare
Primitive outer-belt type+12
Notably bright (low H)+8
Has a proper name+8
Asteroid+1
Main-belt asteroid+1
Total score30
4 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
🪨Asteroid· +1
💡Notably bright (low H)· +8
🏷️Has a proper name· +8
🥌Main-belt asteroid· +1
🦖Primitive outer-belt type· +12
✨ 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 2.3 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 4.1 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.3 and 2.83 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is roughly 3.6× the height of Mount Everest.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 2.5 days.
Standing on it
🥶Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 19% as strong as Earth's.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 32.2 km across.
Properties
albedo
0.2423
aphelion au
2.83
designation
727
diameter km
32.17
eccentricity
0.1035
full name
727 Nipponia (A912 CF)
h mag
9.62
inclination
15.06
mean motion deg day
0.2397
moid au
1.37
name
Nipponia
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
2.301
rotation period h
5.0687
semi major au
2.567
spec taxonomy
DT
spect
DT
About Nipponia
Nipponia is an uncommon asteroid. It has spectral type DT and swings within 2.301 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, Nipponia 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 Nipponia is an uncommon asteroid
Nipponia scores 30 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 4 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 Primitive outer-belt type — 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.