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Asteroid Near-Earth

Chelyabinsk

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21088 Chelyabinsk (1992 BL2)

Where is it now

Distance from Sun
1.313 AU
True anomaly
340.82°
Distance from Earth
1.419 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 Chelyabinsk — 1.313 AU from the Sun Chelyabinsk
Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. Chelyabinsk is 1.419 AU from Earth today (11.8 light-minutes).

In the sky

Right ascension
17h 25m 18s
Declination
-18° 20′ 45″
Constellation
Ophiuchus
Distance from Earth
1.42 AU
Elongation from the Sun
62.8° — well clear of the Sun

Favours the southern hemisphere; low or below the horizon from far north.

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
1.706 AU
Eccentricity
0.2388
Inclination
38.46°
Orbital period
814.2 days
Perihelion
1.299 AU
Aphelion
2.114 AU
Longitude of ascending node
297.83°
Argument of periapsis
27.19°
Epoch · J2000
2461200.5
Orbit class · AMO
Amor
Earth MOID · 119.6 LD
0.3073 AU
Tisserand (Jupiter)
3.92

Orbit quality

Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 0).

Observations used
8,237
Data arc
36.68 years
First observed
30 January 1990
Last observed
5 October 2026
Residual RMS
0.3 ″
Solution · Otto Matic
6 October 2026

Physical properties

Mean radius
1.40 km
Rotation period
11.23 hours

Visual & observation

Geometric albedo
0.206
Absolute magnitude (H)
14.33

Discovery & classification

Discovered by
Elst, E. W.
Discovery date
30 January 1992
Discovery site
La Silla

Chelyabinsk is a city in the Urals, Siberia. On 2013 February 15 a small asteroidal fragment exploded to the south of the city at a height of 30 km. More than 1500 people were injured from indirect effects of the explosion.

Also known as 21088 · 1992 BL2

Amor Near-Earth Object Named

Close approaches 1 on record

When (UTC) Body Distance Lunar distances Relative speed
2142-08-29 08:24:00 Mars 0.0986 AU 38.4 LD 18.5 km/s

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

Sources