This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 4 badges
31 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon34 pts → Rare
Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit+18
Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit+8
Near-Earth object+5
Catalogue designation only+0
Total score31
3 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
🌠Near-Earth object· +5
🔢Catalogue designation only
⚱️Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit· +8
🪡Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit· +18
✨ 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 309.7 thousand megatons — enough to devastate a region the size of a small country.
What it actually is
🛸Its orbit family. An Aten-class object, spending most of its time inside Earth's orbit and crossing ours from the sunward side — which makes this family wretchedly hard to spot against the daylight.
🌞Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 0.3 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mercury.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 243 days.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.3 and 1.22 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
🔥Sunlight there. At closest approach the Sun beats down about 10.9 times harder than it ever does on Earth.
Properties
albedo
0.172
aphelion au
1.22
designation
163243
diameter km
1.682
eccentricity
0.6016
full name
163243 (2002 FB3)
h mag
16.42
inclination
20.28
mean motion deg day
1.483
moid au
0.0032
name
(163243) 2002 FB3
number only
yes
orbit class
ATE
perihelion au
0.303
pha
yes
rotation period h
6.231
semi major au
0.7616
About (163243) 2002 FB3
(163243) 2002 FB3 is an uncommon neo. It swings within 0.303 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
An Aten-class object, spending most of its time inside Earth's orbit and crossing ours from the sunward side — which makes this family wretchedly hard to spot against the daylight.
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, (163243) 2002 FB3 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 (163243) 2002 FB3 is an uncommon neo
(163243) 2002 FB3 scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Near-Earth object, Catalogue designation only, Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit and Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit — 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.