539856 is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.45 AU to 1.57 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 370.9 days. Discovered 5 March 2017 by Pan-STARRS 1. Orbit from the JPL solution of 26 May 2026.
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 1.164 AU
- True anomaly
- 223.9°
- Distance from Earth
- 2.025 AU
- As of
- 3 November 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
- 15h 48m 30s
- Declination
- -29° 20′ 37″
- Constellation
- Scorpius
- Distance from Earth
- 2.02 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 21.71° — near the Sun — look low at dusk or dawn
Favours the southern hemisphere; low or below the horizon from far north.
From your location
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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
- 1.01 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.5575
- Inclination
- 16.5°
- Orbital period
- 370.9 days
- Perihelion
- 0.447 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.573 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 3.12°
- Argument of periapsis
- 32.26°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 44.9 LD
- 0.1153 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 5.852
Orbit quality
Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 0).
- Observations used
- 329
- Data arc
- 8.04 years
- First observed
- 5 March 2017
- Last observed
- 19 March 2025
- Residual RMS
- 0.52 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 26 May 2026
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 20.92
Discovery & classification
- Discovered by
- Pan-STARRS 1
- Discovery date
- 5 March 2017
- Discovery site
- Haleakala
Also known as 2017 EV2
Close approaches 35 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2088-03-01 20:31 UTC close approach of 539856. Catalogue miss distance 71.0 LD · 2.73 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2088-02-27 to 2088-03-04, 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. At closest approach the object is north of the ecliptic. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2037-02-15 08:15:00 | Venus | 0.1472 AU | 57.3 LD | 23.3 km/s |
| 2042-05-17 06:21:00 | Venus | 0.1413 AU | 55.0 LD | 23.9 km/s |
| 2057-06-06 15:17:00 | Venus | 0.1425 AU | 55.4 LD | 22.5 km/s |
| 2077-09-29 08:58:00 | Venus | 0.1428 AU | 55.6 LD | 20.3 km/s |
| 2086-01-16 09:36:00 | Venus | 0.1382 AU | 53.8 LD | 18.8 km/s |
| 2088-03-01 20:31:00 | Earth | 0.1823 AU | 71.0 LD | 15 km/s |
| 2089-03-01 20:29:00 | Earth | 0.1265 AU | 49.2 LD | 16.9 km/s |
| 2090-03-03 16:25:00 | Earth | 0.1182 AU | 46.0 LD | 19.3 km/s |
| 2091-03-06 13:05:00 | Earth | 0.1676 AU | 65.2 LD | 21.8 km/s |
| 2106-05-08 13:50:00 | Venus | 0.1287 AU | 50.1 LD | 20.4 km/s |
Next ten from today. 1 lunar distance = 384,400 km. Source: JPL close-approach data.
Sources
- visual properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- orbital elements: JPL SBDB