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Asteroid Near-Earth

Daedalus

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1864 Daedalus (1971 FA)

Where is it now

Distance from Sun
1.786 AU
True anomaly
143.03°
Distance from Earth
2.16 AU
As of
11 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 — 0.998 AU from the Sun Earth Daedalus — 1.786 AU from the Sun Daedalus
Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. Daedalus is 2.16 AU from Earth today (18.0 light-minutes).

In the sky

Right ascension
10h 17m 34s
Declination
+29° 09′ 38″
Constellation
Leo Minor
Distance from Earth
2.16 AU
Elongation from the Sun
55.41° — near the Sun — look low at dusk or dawn

Favours the northern hemisphere; low or below the horizon from far south.

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.

Your location stays in your browser and is sent only for this calculation. Using a what3words address is optional; if you do, the three words go to what3words to be converted and we don't record them. Set a location first, then you can save an email alert for this object. See our privacy policy.

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
1.461 AU
Eccentricity
0.6145
Inclination
22.22°
Orbital period
644.9 days
Perihelion
0.563 AU
Aphelion
2.359 AU
Longitude of ascending node
6.6°
Argument of periapsis
325.66°
Epoch · J2000
2461200.5
Orbit class · APO
Apollo
Earth MOID · 104.8 LD
0.2694 AU
Tisserand (Jupiter)
4.336

Orbit quality

Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 0).

Observations used
6,597
Data arc
55.03 years
First observed
24 March 1971
Last observed
4 April 2026
Residual RMS
0.33 ″
Solution · Otto Matic
5 April 2026

Physical properties

Mean radius
1.85 km
Rotation period
8.57 hours

Visual & observation

Geometric albedo
0.273
Absolute magnitude (H)
14.83
Colour index (B–V)
0.83
Spectral type (SMASS)
Sr
Spectral type (Tholen)
SQ
Colour index (U–B)
0.5

Discovery & classification

Discovered by
Gehrels, T.
Discovery date
24 March 1971
Discovery site
Palomar

Also known as 1864 · 1971 FA

Apollo Near-Earth Object Named

Close approaches 10 on record

When (UTC) Body Distance Lunar distances Relative speed
2045-11-10 19:00:00 Venus 0.1239 AU 48.2 LD 22.2 km/s
2086-06-25 13:33:00 Venus 0.1477 AU 57.5 LD 24.1 km/s
2100-08-05 06:42:00 Venus 0.1308 AU 50.9 LD 21.4 km/s
2141-03-20 05:41:00 Venus 0.1242 AU 48.3 LD 22.1 km/s
2181-10-31 23:07:00 Venus 0.1391 AU 54.2 LD 23.4 km/s
2195-12-11 06:13:00 Venus 0.1363 AU 53.0 LD 21.3 km/s

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

Sources