About Midas
Midas is an epic neo. It has spectral type V and swings within 0.621 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
An Apollo-class object: its orbit is wider than Earth's but crosses it. Most known Earth-crossers belong to this family.
Epic neo 51 EP
Midas
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 5 badgesEpic 78 pts → Anomaly
- Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit +18
- Basaltic — a chip off a molten world +16
- Has a proper name +8
- Near-Earth object +5
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit +4
Total score 51
27 more points to reach Anomaly.
Badges
- Near-Earth object · +5
- Has a proper name · +8
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit · +4
- Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit · +18
- Basaltic — a chip off a molten world · +16
Trivia
Handle with care
- What 'hazardous' means. 'Potentially hazardous' is bookkeeping, not a prediction: it means the orbit passes within 0.05 AU of Earth's and the body is big enough to matter. Nothing on that list is known to be on a collision course.
- If it ever hit. A rock this size arriving at a typical 20 km/s would release around 2.6 million megatons — the same league as the impact that ended the age of the dinosaurs.
What it actually is
- Its orbit family. An Apollo-class object: its orbit is wider than Earth's but crosses it. Most known Earth-crossers belong to this family.
- Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 0.62 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Venus.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 2.4 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.62 and 2.93 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is roughly 0.4× the height of Mount Everest.
By the numbers
- Size. Roughly 3.4 km across.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 2.93
- designation
- 1981
- diameter km
- 3.4
- eccentricity
- 0.6504
- full name
- 1981 Midas (1973 EA)
- h mag
- 15.28
- inclination
- 39.82
- mean motion deg day
- 0.4163
- moid au
- 0.0039
- name
- Midas
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- APO
- perihelion au
- 0.621
- pha
- yes
- rotation period h
- 5.22
- semi major au
- 1.776
- spec taxonomy
- V
- spect
- V
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Midas 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 Midas is an epic neo
Midas scores 51 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 27 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Near-Earth object, Has a proper name, Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit, Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit and Basaltic — a chip off a molten world — 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.