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Asteroid Near-Earth

Robwhiteley

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20460 Robwhiteley (1999 LO28)

Where is it now

Distance from Sun
2.257 AU
True anomaly
221.26°
Distance from Earth
1.852 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 Robwhiteley — 2.257 AU from the Sun Robwhiteley
Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. Robwhiteley is 1.852 AU from Earth today (15.4 light-minutes).

In the sky

Right ascension
06h 38m 11s
Declination
+46° 12′ 27″
Constellation
Auriga
Distance from Earth
1.84 AU
Elongation from the Sun
100.89° — well clear of the Sun

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.

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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
1.877 AU
Eccentricity
0.4119
Inclination
33.96°
Orbital period
2.57 years
Perihelion
1.104 AU
Aphelion
2.649 AU
Longitude of ascending node
279.99°
Argument of periapsis
283.73°
Epoch · J2000
2461200.5
Orbit class · AMO
Amor
Earth MOID · 128.3 LD
0.3296 AU
Tisserand (Jupiter)
3.681

Orbit quality

Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 0).

Observations used
5,554
Data arc
71.77 years
First observed
30 December 1954
Last observed
6 October 2026
Residual RMS
0.33 ″
Solution · Otto Matic
7 October 2026

Physical properties

Mean radius
1.36 km
Rotation period
2.72 hours

Visual & observation

Geometric albedo
0.199
Absolute magnitude (H)
15.41

Discovery & classification

Discovered by
CSS
Discovery date
13 June 1999
Discovery site
Catalina

Robert J. Whiteley (b. 1971) is a member of the University of Hawaii Aten Survey and the Catalina Sky Survey. He has also done research into the rotational properties of small, rapidly spinning minor planets and the taxonomic classification of near-Earth asteroids.

Also known as 20460 · 1999 LO28

Amor Near-Earth Object Named

Close approaches 2 on record

When (UTC) Body Distance Lunar distances Relative speed
2084-04-16 05:05:00 Mars 0.06 AU 23.3 LD 19.9 km/s

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

Sources