2020 WY is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.99 AU to 1.05 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 376.5 days. Orbit from the JPL solution of 20 December 2022.
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 1.002 AU
- True anomaly
- 51.25°
- Distance from Earth
- 1.035 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 48m 35s
- Declination
- -24° 16′ 30″
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Distance from Earth
- 1.03 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 59.21° — 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
- 1.02 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.0286
- Inclination
- 1.7°
- Orbital period
- 376.5 days
- Perihelion
- 0.991 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.05 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 107.1°
- Argument of periapsis
- 180.45°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 9.4 LD
- 0.0242 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 5.984
Orbit quality
Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 2).
- Observations used
- 99
- Data arc
- 360 days
- First observed
- 22 January 2020
- Last observed
- 16 January 2021
- Residual RMS
- 0.55 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 20 December 2022
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 26.2
Discovery & classification
Close approaches 54 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2052-04-15 04:13 UTC close approach of 2020 WY. Catalogue miss distance 122.6 LD · 4.71 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2052-04-12 to 2052-04-18, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2052-04-15 04:13:00 | Earth | 0.3151 AU | 122.6 LD | 10.5 km/s |
| 2053-04-23 00:41:00 | Earth | 0.1297 AU | 50.5 LD | 5 km/s |
| 2054-03-04 21:48:00 | Earth | 0.0523 AU | 20.4 LD | 1.3 km/s |
| 2054-07-05 20:16:00 | Earth | 0.0262 AU | 10.2 LD | 1.4 km/s |
| 2054-10-26 20:54:00 | Earth | 0.0522 AU | 20.3 LD | 1.1 km/s |
| 2055-09-11 17:17:00 | Earth | 0.1297 AU | 50.5 LD | 5 km/s |
| 2056-09-18 09:56:00 | Earth | 0.3124 AU | 121.6 LD | 10.5 km/s |
| 2057-09-24 20:48:00 | Earth | 0.496 AU | 193.0 LD | 15.9 km/s |
| 2086-04-02 06:00:00 | Earth | 0.3776 AU | 146.9 LD | 12.4 km/s |
| 2087-04-09 05:50:00 | Earth | 0.193 AU | 75.1 LD | 6.9 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