About 2012 UR158
2012 UR158 is an epic neo. It swings within 0.317 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.
Epic neo 51 EP
2012 UR158
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 7 badgesEpic 78 pts → Anomaly
- Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit +18
- Wildly elliptical orbit +10
- Darker than charcoal +10
- Near-Earth object +5
- Tiny fragment (<1 km) +4
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit +4
- Catalogue designation only +0
Total score 51
27 more points to reach Anomaly.
Badges
- Near-Earth object · +5
- Wildly elliptical orbit · +10
- Tiny fragment (<1 km) · +4
- Catalogue designation only
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit · +4
- Darker than charcoal · +10
- 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 16.2 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 0.32 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mercury.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 3.3 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.32 and 4.15 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 6 football pitches across.
Standing on it
- Sunlight there. At closest approach the Sun beats down about 10 times harder than it ever does on Earth.
Properties
- albedo
- 0.023
- aphelion au
- 4.15
- designation
- 2012 UR158
- diameter km
- 0.629
- eccentricity
- 0.8578
- full name
- (2012 UR158)
- h mag
- 20.67
- inclination
- 3.19
- mean motion deg day
- 0.2955
- moid au
- 0.0013
- name
- 2012 UR158
- number only
- yes
- orbit class
- APO
- perihelion au
- 0.317
- pha
- yes
- semi major au
- 2.232
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, 2012 UR158 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 2012 UR158 is an epic neo
2012 UR158 scores 51 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 27 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 7 science badges — Near-Earth object, Wildly elliptical orbit, Tiny fragment (<1 km), Catalogue designation only, Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit, Darker than charcoal 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.