This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 5 badges
25 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon34 pts → Rare
Potentially hazardous+12
Near-Earth object+5
Amor: shadows Earth's orbit from outside+4
Stony asteroid+4
Catalogue designation only+0
Total score25
9 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
🌠Near-Earth object· +5
⚠️Potentially hazardous· +12
🔢Catalogue designation only
💘Amor: shadows Earth's orbit from outside· +4
🧗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 223.3 thousand megatons — enough to devastate a region the size of a small country.
What it actually is
🛸Its orbit family. An Amor-class object. It approaches Earth's orbit from outside without ever crossing it — named for the asteroid Amor, which swept past at 16 million km in 1932.
🌞Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 1.02 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mars.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 3.6 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 1.02 and 3.7 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is roughly 0.2× the height of Mount Everest.
Standing on it
🦘Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 0.91 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
Properties
aphelion au
3.7
designation
138524
eccentricity
0.5677
full name
138524 (2000 OJ8)
h mag
16.86
inclination
6.24
mean motion deg day
0.2723
moid au
0.0283
name
(138524) 2000 OJ8
number only
yes
orbit class
AMO
perihelion au
1.019
pha
yes
rotation period h
2.6835
semi major au
2.358
spec taxonomy
Sr
spect
Sr
About (138524) 2000 OJ8
(138524) 2000 OJ8 is an uncommon neo. It has spectral type Sr and swings within 1.019 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
An Amor-class object. It approaches Earth's orbit from outside without ever crossing it — named for the asteroid Amor, which swept past at 16 million km in 1932.
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, (138524) 2000 OJ8 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 (138524) 2000 OJ8 is an uncommon neo
(138524) 2000 OJ8 scores 25 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Near-Earth object, Potentially hazardous, Catalogue designation only, Amor: shadows Earth's orbit from outside 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.