This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 4 badges
25 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon34 pts → Rare
Potentially hazardous+12
Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit+8
Near-Earth object+5
Catalogue designation only+0
Total score25
9 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
🌠Near-Earth object· +5
⚠️Potentially hazardous· +12
🔢Catalogue designation only
⚱️Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit· +8
✨ 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 37.1 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 0.81 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Earth.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 343 days.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.81 and 1.1 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 7.9 football pitches across.
Standing on it
🦘Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 0.5 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
Properties
aphelion au
1.1
designation
199003
eccentricity
0.152
full name
199003 (2005 WJ56)
h mag
18.16
inclination
21.62
mean motion deg day
1.05
moid au
0.0226
name
(199003) 2005 WJ56
number only
yes
orbit class
ATE
perihelion au
0.813
pha
yes
rotation period h
4.3825
semi major au
0.959
About (199003) 2005 WJ56
(199003) 2005 WJ56 is an uncommon neo. It swings within 0.813 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, (199003) 2005 WJ56 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 (199003) 2005 WJ56 is an uncommon neo
(199003) 2005 WJ56 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 4 science badges — Near-Earth object, Potentially hazardous, Catalogue designation only and Aten: mostly inside 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.