2016 WQ3 is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.89 AU to 1.14 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 374.7 days. Orbit from the JPL solution of 15 April 2021.
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 1.141 AU
- True anomaly
- 176.51°
- Distance from Earth
- 1.277 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
- 18h 46m 05s
- Declination
- -23° 34′ 01″
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Distance from Earth
- 1.28 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 58.77° — near the Sun — look low at dusk or dawn
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.
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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
- 1.017 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.1224
- Inclination
- 0.63°
- Orbital period
- 374.7 days
- Perihelion
- 0.893 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.142 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 47.4°
- Argument of periapsis
- 104.27°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 1.5 LD
- 0.0037 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 5.993
Orbit quality
Orbit reasonably well determined (uncertainty code 3).
- Observations used
- 39
- Data arc
- 12 days
- First observed
- 23 November 2016
- Last observed
- 5 December 2016
- Residual RMS
- 0.3 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 15 April 2021
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 28.8
Discovery & classification
Close approaches 43 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2054-11-13 06:55 UTC close approach of 2016 WQ3. Catalogue miss distance 147.6 LD · 5.68 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2054-11-10 to 2054-11-16, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2054-11-13 06:55:00 | Earth | 0.3794 AU | 147.6 LD | 14.8 km/s |
| 2055-11-21 02:35:00 | Earth | 0.2212 AU | 86.1 LD | 10 km/s |
| 2056-11-27 15:49:00 | Earth | 0.0638 AU | 24.8 LD | 5.3 km/s |
| 2057-11-06 05:45:00 | Earth | 0.0768 AU | 29.9 LD | 2.1 km/s |
| 2058-01-07 01:53:00 | Earth | 0.0719 AU | 28.0 LD | 2.4 km/s |
| 2058-09-10 12:02:00 | Earth | 0.1277 AU | 49.7 LD | 3.3 km/s |
| 2059-03-15 12:13:00 | Earth | 0.0957 AU | 37.2 LD | 3.2 km/s |
| 2059-07-26 14:40:00 | Earth | 0.1137 AU | 44.3 LD | 2.9 km/s |
| 2060-05-25 19:45:00 | Moon | 0.0067 AU | 2.6 LD | 4.1 km/s |
| 2060-05-27 02:11:00 | Earth | 0.0084 AU | 3.3 LD | 3.2 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