About Toutatis
Toutatis is an epic neo. It has spectral type Sk and swings within 0.955 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
Toutatis
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 7 badgesEpic 78 pts → Anomaly
- Potentially hazardous +12
- Brilliantly reflective surface +10
- Has a proper name +8
- Barely turning (over 100 hours) +8
- Near-Earth object +5
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit +4
- Stony asteroid +4
Total score 51
27 more points to reach Anomaly.
Badges
- Near-Earth object · +5
- Potentially hazardous · +12
- Has a proper name · +8
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit · +4
- Barely turning (over 100 hours) · +8
- Brilliantly reflective surface · +10
- Stony asteroid · +4
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 10.2 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 0.95 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Earth.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 4.1 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.95 and 4.13 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is roughly 0.6× the height of Mount Everest.
By the numbers
- Size. Roughly 5.4 km across.
Properties
- albedo
- 0.405
- aphelion au
- 4.13
- designation
- 4179
- diameter km
- 5.4
- eccentricity
- 0.6246
- full name
- 4179 Toutatis (1989 AC)
- h mag
- 15.29
- inclination
- 0.45
- mean motion deg day
- 0.243
- moid au
- 0.0065
- name
- Toutatis
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- APO
- perihelion au
- 0.955
- pha
- yes
- rotation period h
- 176
- semi major au
- 2.543
- spec taxonomy
- Sk
- spect
- Sk
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Toutatis 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 Toutatis is an epic neo
Toutatis 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 7 science badges — Near-Earth object, Potentially hazardous, Has a proper name, Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit, Barely turning (over 100 hours), Brilliantly reflective surface and Stony asteroid — 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.