2020 FA1 is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 1 AU to 1.06 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 380.4 days. Orbit from the JPL solution of 14 October 2021.
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 0.997 AU
- True anomaly
- 18.62°
- Distance from Earth
- 1.379 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
- 17h 52m 48s
- Declination
- -21° 57′ 56″
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Distance from Earth
- 1.38 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 46.27° — 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
- 1.027 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.0312
- Inclination
- 3.54°
- Orbital period
- 380.4 days
- Perihelion
- 0.995 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.06 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 169.09°
- Argument of periapsis
- 125.79°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 0.3 LD
- 0.0008 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 5.951
Orbit quality
Orbit reasonably well determined (uncertainty code 3).
- Observations used
- 83
- Data arc
- 287 days
- First observed
- 7 February 2020
- Last observed
- 20 November 2020
- Residual RMS
- 0.53 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 14 October 2021
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 26.37
Discovery & classification
Listed by JPL impact monitoring; see the Sentry table for current probabilities.
Close approaches 41 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2044-04-22 18:01 UTC close approach of 2020 FA1. Catalogue miss distance 107.5 LD · 4.13 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2044-04-19 to 2044-04-25, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2044-04-22 18:01:00 | Earth | 0.2763 AU | 107.5 LD | 9.4 km/s |
| 2045-04-14 09:17:00 | Earth | 0.0487 AU | 19.0 LD | 2.6 km/s |
| 2045-12-19 11:31:00 | Earth | 0.0914 AU | 35.6 LD | 1.7 km/s |
| 2046-09-22 07:50:00 | Earth | 0.1155 AU | 45.0 LD | 5 km/s |
| 2047-10-02 09:20:00 | Earth | 0.3511 AU | 136.6 LD | 11.8 km/s |
| 2071-04-21 00:45:00 | Earth | 0.3205 AU | 124.7 LD | 10.7 km/s |
| 2072-04-21 10:25:00 | Earth | 0.0951 AU | 37.0 LD | 4 km/s |
| 2073-01-31 10:57:00 | Earth | 0.0815 AU | 31.7 LD | 2.2 km/s |
| 2073-09-17 08:37:00 | Earth | 0.0458 AU | 17.8 LD | 3.2 km/s |
| 2074-09-30 09:37:00 | Earth | 0.3037 AU | 118.2 LD | 10.4 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