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 587 megatons — about 11.7 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 0.81 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Earth.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 321 days.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.81 and 1.02 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 2 football pitches across.
Standing on it
🦘Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 0.13 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
Properties
aphelion au
1.02
designation
2018 AM12
eccentricity
0.1162
full name
(2018 AM12)
h mag
21.16
inclination
21.67
mean motion deg day
1.122
moid au
0.0071
name
2018 AM12
number only
yes
orbit class
ATE
perihelion au
0.811
pha
yes
rotation period h
0.2106
semi major au
0.9172
About 2018 AM12
2018 AM12 is a rare neo. It swings within 0.811 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, 2018 AM12 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 2018 AM12 is a rare neo
2018 AM12 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.