About Phaethon
Phaethon is a rare neo. It has spectral type B and swings within 0.14 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.
Rare neo 45 EP
Phaethon
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 6 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Potentially hazardous +12
- Wildly elliptical orbit +10
- Has a proper name +8
- Carbonaceous — as old as the solar system +6
- Near-Earth object +5
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit +4
Total score 45
5 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Near-Earth object · +5
- Potentially hazardous · +12
- Wildly elliptical orbit · +10
- Has a proper name · +8
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit · +4
- Carbonaceous — as old as the solar system · +6
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 15.9 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 0.14 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mercury.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 1.4 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.14 and 2.4 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is roughly 0.7× the height of Mount Everest.
Standing on it
- Sunlight there. At closest approach the Sun beats down about 51 times harder than it ever does on Earth.
Properties
- albedo
- 0.1066
- aphelion au
- 2.4
- designation
- 3200
- diameter km
- 6.25
- eccentricity
- 0.8897
- full name
- 3200 Phaethon (1983 TB)
- h mag
- 14.38
- inclination
- 22.31
- mean motion deg day
- 0.6875
- moid au
- 0.0187
- name
- Phaethon
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- APO
- perihelion au
- 0.14
- pha
- yes
- rotation period h
- 3.604
- semi major au
- 1.271
- spec taxonomy
- B
- spect
- B
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Phaethon 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 Phaethon is a rare neo
Phaethon scores 45 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Near-Earth object, Potentially hazardous, Wildly elliptical orbit, Has a proper name, Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit 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.