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Asteroid

Meliboea

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137 Meliboea (A874 HA)

Where is it now

Distance from Sun
3.773 AU
True anomaly
170.63°
Distance from Earth
3.95 AU
As of
21 October 2026

Two-body Kepler propagation — accurate to ~0.1% for major planets over decades, less so for highly-perturbed bodies. Use JPL Horizons for high precision.

Orbit of Mercury Orbit of Venus Orbit of Mars Sun Earth — 0.995 AU from the Sun Earth Meliboea — 3.773 AU from the Sun Meliboea
Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. Meliboea is 3.95 AU from Earth today (32.8 light-minutes).

In the sky

Right ascension
08h 59m 36s
Declination
+03° 53′ 03″
Constellation
Hydra
Distance from Earth
3.95 AU
Elongation from the Sun
72.63° — well clear of the Sun

Visible from both hemispheres.

From your location

See how high it is right now, whether it is up after civil twilight, and when it rises and sets where you are.

How do I find my coordinates?

Google Maps on a computer

  1. Right-click the spot where you'll be observing.
  2. The first line of the menu is the coordinates, e.g. 51.50722, -0.12758 — click it and they're copied.
  3. Paste them above.

Google Maps on a phone

  1. Press and hold the spot to drop a pin.
  2. The coordinates appear in the search bar (or on the pin's card) — tap to copy, then paste above.

A full Google Maps link works too, but the short maps.app.goo.gl share links don't carry coordinates — copy the numbers instead. We round to about a kilometre; that's all the sky calculation needs.

Know your what3words address? Paste it, e.g. ///filled.count.soap. This is optional — the three words are sent to what3words to convert them, and we don't store the address or the result.

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Two-body approximation, good to about a degree for the planets — enough to find the constellation and know whether it is up.

Orbital elements

Semi-major axis
3.13 AU
Eccentricity
0.21
Inclination
13.41°
Orbital period
5.54 years
Perihelion
2.472 AU
Aphelion
3.787 AU
Longitude of ascending node
202.03°
Argument of periapsis
108.33°
Epoch · J2000
2461200.5
Orbit class · MBA
Main-belt asteroid
Earth MOID · 583.1 LD
1.4984 AU
Tisserand (Jupiter)
3.138

Orbit quality

Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 0).

Observations used
11,022
Data arc
145.9 years
First observed
2 June 1880
Last observed
12 April 2026
Residual RMS
0.25 ″
Solution · Otto Matic
5 June 2026

Physical properties

Mean radius
64 km
Rotation period
25.68 hours

Visual & observation

Geometric albedo
0.065
Absolute magnitude (H)
8.33
Colour index (B–V)
0.69
Spectral type (Tholen)
C
Colour index (U–B)
0.33

Discovery & classification

Discovered by
Palisa, J.
Discovery date
21 April 1874
Discovery site
Pola

Also known as 137 · A874 HA · 1958 UE · 1962 GB · A923 FA

Main-Belt Asteroid Named

Close approaches 9 on record

When (UTC) Body Distance Lunar distances Relative speed
2027-06-18 11:23:00 Juptr 1.8807 AU 731.9 LD 2.5 km/s
2037-03-30 18:49:00 Juptr 1.8243 AU 710.0 LD 2.5 km/s
2099-07-08 12:14:00 Juptr 1.9917 AU 775.1 LD 3.8 km/s
2109-07-23 01:17:00 Juptr 1.8285 AU 711.6 LD 0.9 km/s
2119-06-12 06:30:00 Juptr 1.909 AU 742.9 LD 4.1 km/s
2181-10-07 06:47:00 Juptr 1.8535 AU 721.3 LD 2.8 km/s
2191-07-30 02:30:00 Juptr 1.8577 AU 723.0 LD 2.1 km/s

Next ten from today. 1 lunar distance = 384,400 km. Source: JPL close-approach data.

Sources