About Vishnu
Vishnu is a rare neo. It has spectral type O and swings within 0.589 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 43 EP
Vishnu
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 6 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Potentially hazardous +12
- Brilliantly reflective surface +10
- Has a proper name +8
- Near-Earth object +5
- Tiny fragment (<1 km) +4
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit +4
Total score 43
7 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Near-Earth object · +5
- Potentially hazardous · +12
- Tiny fragment (<1 km) · +4
- Has a proper name · +8
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit · +4
- Brilliantly reflective surface · +10
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 4821 megatons — about 96.4 times the largest bomb ever detonated.
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 0.59 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Venus.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 1.1 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.59 and 1.53 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 4 football pitches across.
Standing on it
- Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 0.25 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
Properties
- albedo
- 0.52
- aphelion au
- 1.53
- designation
- 4034
- diameter km
- 0.42
- eccentricity
- 0.444
- full name
- 4034 Vishnu (1986 PA)
- h mag
- 18.5
- inclination
- 11.17
- mean motion deg day
- 0.9039
- moid au
- 0.0192
- name
- Vishnu
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- APO
- perihelion au
- 0.589
- pha
- yes
- rotation period h
- 44.4
- semi major au
- 1.059
- spec taxonomy
- O
- spect
- O
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Vishnu 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 Vishnu is a rare neo
Vishnu scores 43 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Near-Earth object, Potentially hazardous, Tiny fragment (<1 km), Has a proper name, Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit and Brilliantly reflective surface — 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.