Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 3.967 AU
- True anomaly
- 188.64°
- Distance from Earth
- 3.56 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.
In the sky
- Right ascension
- 20h 19m 42s
- Declination
- -05° 48′ 57″
- Constellation
- Aquila
- Distance from Earth
- 3.57 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 106.4° — 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.
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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
- 2.439 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.6632
- Inclination
- 26.08°
- Orbital period
- 3.81 years
- Perihelion
- 0.821 AU
- Aphelion
- 4.056 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 165.86°
- Argument of periapsis
- 323.05°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 33.4 LD
- 0.0859 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 3.054
Orbit quality
Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 0).
- Observations used
- 1,450
- Data arc
- 36.94 years
- First observed
- 28 October 1989
- Last observed
- 6 October 2026
- Residual RMS
- 0.42 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 7 October 2026
Physical properties
- Mean radius
- 1.15 km
- Rotation period
- 2.34 hours
Visual & observation
- Geometric albedo
- 0.257
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 15.19
- Spectral type (SMASS)
- U
Discovery & classification
- Discovered by
- McNaught, R. H.
- Discovery date
- 20 October 1993
- Discovery site
- Siding Spring
Also known as 1993 UC
Close approaches 17 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2055-03-06 15:49 UTC close approach of 7888. Catalogue miss distance 31.8 LD · 1.22 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2055-03-03 to 2055-03-09, with a mark at UTC midnights and an arrow for the direction of motion. The circle is the Moon’s mean orbit; the Moon is plotted at closest approach. A ray shows the Sun’s direction. The labelled distance is the full separation. The drawn radius is the part that lies in the ecliptic plane. The path is a geocentric ecliptic ephemeris from JPL Horizons. The inset is a heliocentric view and is approximate.
| When (UTC) | Body | Distance | Lunar distances | Relative speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2055-03-06 15:49:00 | Earth | 0.0816 AU | 31.8 LD | 19.3 km/s |
| 2057-05-10 00:14:00 | Juptr | 1.6796 AU | 653.6 LD | 6.5 km/s |
| 2069-01-22 22:07:00 | Juptr | 1.4311 AU | 556.9 LD | 6.9 km/s |
| 2080-09-19 08:10:00 | Juptr | 1.5343 AU | 597.1 LD | 8.1 km/s |
| 2082-02-22 05:54:00 | Earth | 0.1543 AU | 60.0 LD | 18.6 km/s |
| 2162-03-15 11:48:00 | Earth | 0.1031 AU | 40.1 LD | 21.4 km/s |
| 2175-12-16 15:02:00 | Juptr | 1.5376 AU | 598.4 LD | 6.6 km/s |
| 2187-08-20 18:11:00 | Juptr | 1.4016 AU | 545.5 LD | 7.4 km/s |
| 2199-04-07 03:15:00 | Juptr | 1.6455 AU | 640.4 LD | 8.8 km/s |
Next ten from today. 1 lunar distance = 384,400 km. Source: JPL close-approach data.
Sources
- visual properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- physical properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- physical properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- visual properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- visual properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- orbital elements: JPL SBDB