About 2016 LX48
2016 LX48 is a rare neo. It swings within 0.995 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 35 EP
2016 LX48
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 6 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Potentially hazardous +12
- 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 35
15 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Near-Earth object · +5
- Potentially hazardous · +12
- Tiny fragment (<1 km) · +4
- Catalogue designation only
- Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit · +4
- Darker than charcoal · +10
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 42 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 0.99 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Earth.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 5.8 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.99 and 5.45 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 8.2 football pitches across.
Standing on it
- Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 0.52 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
Properties
- albedo
- 0.045
- aphelion au
- 5.45
- designation
- 2016 LX48
- diameter km
- 0.864
- eccentricity
- 0.6913
- full name
- (2016 LX48)
- h mag
- 19.34
- inclination
- 5.58
- mean motion deg day
- 0.1704
- moid au
- 0.016
- name
- 2016 LX48
- number only
- yes
- orbit class
- APO
- perihelion au
- 0.995
- pha
- yes
- rotation period h
- 5.6799
- semi major au
- 3.222
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, 2016 LX48 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 2016 LX48 is a rare neo
2016 LX48 scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Near-Earth object, Potentially hazardous, Tiny fragment (<1 km), Catalogue designation only, Apollo: crosses Earth's orbit and Darker than charcoal — 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.