This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 6 badges
37 pts · Rare
Rare50 pts → Epic
Potentially hazardous+12
Primitive outer-belt type+12
Near-Earth object+5
Tiny fragment (<1 km)+4
Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit+4
Catalogue designation only+0
Total score37
13 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
🌠Near-Earth object· +5
⚠️Potentially hazardous· +12
🤏Tiny fragment (<1 km)· +4
🔢Catalogue designation only
🏛️Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit· +4
🦖Primitive outer-belt type· +12
✨ 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 43.6 thousand megatons — enough to devastate a region the size of a small country.
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 1.01 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mars.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 2.7 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 1.01 and 2.84 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 8.3 football pitches across.
Standing on it
🦘Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 0.53 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
Properties
albedo
0.161
aphelion au
2.84
designation
162998
diameter km
0.875
eccentricity
0.4745
full name
162998 (2001 SK162)
h mag
18.15
inclination
1.68
mean motion deg day
0.3688
moid au
0.0286
name
(162998) 2001 SK162
number only
yes
orbit class
APO
perihelion au
1.012
pha
yes
rotation period h
68
semi major au
1.926
spec taxonomy
T
spect
T
About (162998) 2001 SK162
(162998) 2001 SK162 is a rare neo. It has spectral type T and swings within 1.012 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.
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, (162998) 2001 SK162 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 (162998) 2001 SK162 is a rare neo
(162998) 2001 SK162 scores 37 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Near-Earth object, Potentially hazardous, Tiny fragment (<1 km), Catalogue designation only, Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit and Primitive outer-belt type — 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.