This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 5 badges
47 pts · Rare
Rare50 pts → Epic
Spinning past the rubble-pile limit+22
Potentially hazardous+12
Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit+8
Near-Earth object+5
Catalogue designation only+0
Total score47
3 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
🌠Near-Earth object· +5
⚠️Potentially hazardous· +12
🔢Catalogue designation only
⚱️Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit· +8
⏰Spinning past the rubble-pile limit· +22
✨ 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 217 megatons — about 4.3 times the largest bomb ever detonated.
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 0.34 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mercury.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 356 days.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.34 and 1.62 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 1.4 football pitches across.
Standing on it
🔥Sunlight there. At closest approach the Sun beats down about 8.4 times harder than it ever does on Earth.
Properties
aphelion au
1.62
designation
2006 AM4
eccentricity
0.6492
full name
(2006 AM4)
h mag
21.88
inclination
4.16
mean motion deg day
1.012
moid au
0.0111
name
2006 AM4
number only
yes
orbit class
ATE
perihelion au
0.345
pha
yes
rotation period h
0.0847
semi major au
0.9822
About 2006 AM4
2006 AM4 is a rare neo. It swings within 0.345 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, 2006 AM4 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 2006 AM4 is a rare neo
2006 AM4 scores 47 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Near-Earth object, Potentially hazardous, Catalogue designation only, Aten: mostly inside Earth's orbit and Spinning past the rubble-pile limit — 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.