2016 WU is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.86 AU to 1.22 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 385.3 days. Orbit from the JPL solution of 15 April 2021.
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 1.173 AU
- True anomaly
- 214.63°
- Distance from Earth
- 2.034 AU
- As of
- 4 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
- 13h 22m 49s
- Declination
- -04° 35′ 16″
- Constellation
- Virgo
- Distance from Earth
- 2.03 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 21.88° — near the Sun — look low at dusk or dawn
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
- 1.036 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.1747
- Inclination
- 8.41°
- Orbital period
- 385.3 days
- Perihelion
- 0.855 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.217 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 54.65°
- Argument of periapsis
- 272.99°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 0.8 LD
- 0.0019 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 5.891
Orbit quality
Orbit poorly determined (uncertainty code 6).
- Observations used
- 34
- Data arc
- 14 days
- First observed
- 18 November 2016
- Last observed
- 2 December 2016
- Residual RMS
- 0.44 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 15 April 2021
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 27.3
Discovery & classification
Listed by JPL impact monitoring; see the Sentry table for current probabilities.
Close approaches 75 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2032-04-25 01:08 UTC close approach of 2016 WU. Catalogue miss distance 187.7 LD · 7.21 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2032-04-22 to 2032-04-28, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2030-05-26 20:44:00 | Venus | 0.1458 AU | 56.7 LD | 1.2 km/s |
| 2032-04-25 01:08:00 | Earth | 0.4822 AU | 187.7 LD | 20.4 km/s |
| 2033-05-09 18:29:00 | Earth | 0.1474 AU | 57.4 LD | 10.8 km/s |
| 2034-04-25 07:26:00 | Earth | 0.188 AU | 73.2 LD | 4.6 km/s |
| 2034-07-04 09:05:00 | Earth | 0.1792 AU | 69.7 LD | 5 km/s |
| 2035-02-03 03:53:00 | Earth | 0.2767 AU | 107.7 LD | 5.6 km/s |
| 2035-11-13 04:31:00 | Earth | 0.0746 AU | 29.0 LD | 5.5 km/s |
| 2036-11-26 13:36:00 | Earth | 0.2661 AU | 103.6 LD | 14.3 km/s |
| 2037-10-13 07:32:00 | Venus | 0.1453 AU | 56.6 LD | 1.3 km/s |
| 2045-03-05 22:06:00 | Venus | 0.1455 AU | 56.6 LD | 1.6 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