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Score breakdown
· 6 badges
34 pts · Rare
Rare50 pts → Epic
Darker than charcoal+10
Notably bright (low H)+8
Has a proper name+8
Carbonaceous — as old as the solar system+6
Asteroid+1
Main-belt asteroid+1
Total score34
16 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
🖤Carbonaceous — as old as the solar system· +6
✨ 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 2.41 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 4.8 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.41 and 3.31 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 3.1× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 5.2 days.
Standing on it
🥶Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 17% as strong as Earth's.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 66 km across.
Properties
albedo
0.041
aphelion au
3.31
designation
1264
diameter km
66.04
eccentricity
0.1571
full name
1264 Letaba (1933 HG)
h mag
9.63
inclination
24.97
mean motion deg day
0.2033
moid au
1.42
name
Letaba
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
2.414
rotation period h
32.74
semi major au
2.864
spec taxonomy
C
spect
C
About Letaba
Letaba is a rare asteroid. It has spectral type C and swings within 2.414 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, Letaba 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 Letaba is a rare asteroid
Letaba scores 34 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 16 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 Carbonaceous — as old as the solar system — 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.