2021 GC is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.74 AU to 1.34 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 386.6 days. Orbit from the JPL solution of 20 April 2021.
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 1.339 AU
- True anomaly
- 176.29°
- Distance from Earth
- 2.189 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
- 16h 07m 49s
- Declination
- -27° 14′ 40″
- Constellation
- Scorpius
- Distance from Earth
- 2.19 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 23.43° — 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
- 1.039 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.2909
- Inclination
- 10.49°
- Orbital period
- 386.6 days
- Perihelion
- 0.736 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.341 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 6.57°
- Argument of periapsis
- 79.25°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 1.6 LD
- 0.004 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 5.851
Orbit quality
Orbit poorly determined (uncertainty code 6).
- Observations used
- 110
- Data arc
- 19 days
- First observed
- 1 April 2021
- Last observed
- 20 April 2021
- Residual RMS
- 0.43 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 20 April 2021
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 24.55
Discovery & classification
Close approaches 83 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2035-09-04 03:54 UTC close approach of 2021 GC. Catalogue miss distance 71.0 LD · 2.73 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2035-09-01 to 2035-09-07, 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 south 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2035-09-04 03:54:00 | Earth | 0.1825 AU | 71.0 LD | 14.4 km/s |
| 2036-10-12 00:45:00 | Earth | 0.1819 AU | 70.8 LD | 7.4 km/s |
| 2037-06-29 02:33:00 | Earth | 0.3828 AU | 149.0 LD | 7.5 km/s |
| 2037-11-27 15:01:00 | Venus | 0.1257 AU | 48.9 LD | 8.1 km/s |
| 2037-12-28 03:58:00 | Earth | 0.2901 AU | 112.9 LD | 9 km/s |
| 2038-01-20 13:41:00 | Venus | 0.1403 AU | 54.6 LD | 5.7 km/s |
| 2038-05-12 08:14:00 | Earth | 0.3326 AU | 129.5 LD | 7.4 km/s |
| 2039-03-25 01:15:00 | Earth | 0.0549 AU | 21.3 LD | 8.6 km/s |
| 2040-04-07 17:58:00 | Earth | 0.2984 AU | 116.1 LD | 18.1 km/s |
| 2045-06-08 09:03:00 | Venus | 0.1095 AU | 42.6 LD | 9.1 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