About (508967) 2004 VC17
(508967) 2004 VC17 is a rare neo. It swings within 0.359 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.
Rare neo 37 EP
(508967) 2004 VC17
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 5 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit +18
- Wildly elliptical orbit +10
- Near-Earth object +5
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit +4
- Catalogue designation only +0
Total score 37
13 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Near-Earth object · +5
- Wildly elliptical orbit · +10
- Catalogue designation only
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit · +4
- 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 23.5 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 0.36 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mercury.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 2.6 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.36 and 3.43 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 6.8 football pitches across.
Standing on it
- Sunlight there. At closest approach the Sun beats down about 7.8 times harder than it ever does on Earth.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 3.43
- designation
- 508967
- eccentricity
- 0.8109
- full name
- 508967 (2004 VC17)
- h mag
- 18.49
- inclination
- 20.38
- mean motion deg day
- 0.3776
- moid au
- 0.0021
- name
- (508967) 2004 VC17
- number only
- yes
- orbit class
- APO
- perihelion au
- 0.359
- pha
- yes
- semi major au
- 1.896
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, (508967) 2004 VC17 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 (508967) 2004 VC17 is a rare neo
(508967) 2004 VC17 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 5 science badges — Near-Earth object, Wildly elliptical orbit, Catalogue designation only, Apollo: crosses 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.