Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 1.294 AU
- True anomaly
- 160.74°
- Distance from Earth
- 0.435 AU
- As of
- 20 October 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
- 04h 21m 01s
- Declination
- +55° 57′ 39″
- Constellation
- Camelopardalis
- Distance from Earth
- 0.43 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 125.53° — well clear of the Sun
Favours the northern hemisphere; low or below the horizon from far south.
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
- 0.896 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.5376
- Inclination
- 10.85°
- Orbital period
- 309.8 days
- Perihelion
- 0.414 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.378 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 317.16°
- Argument of periapsis
- 281.59°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · ATE
- Aten
- Earth MOID · 33.8 LD
- 0.0868 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 6.494
Orbit quality
Orbit reasonably well determined (uncertainty code 5).
- Observations used
- 26
- Data arc
- 25 days
- First observed
- 2 December 2021
- Last observed
- 27 December 2021
- Residual RMS
- 0.32 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 27 December 2021
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 22.02
Discovery & classification
Close approaches 317 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2026-11-05 04:25 UTC close approach of 2021 XB2. Catalogue miss distance 164.9 LD · 6.34 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2026-11-02 to 2026-11-08, 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 north 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-11-05 04:25:00 | Earth | 0.4237 AU | 164.9 LD | 12.5 km/s |
| 2028-01-13 02:11:00 | Earth | 0.1005 AU | 39.1 LD | 15.8 km/s |
| 2031-10-01 02:04:00 | Earth | 0.1485 AU | 57.8 LD | 17.1 km/s |
| 2032-12-05 07:19:00 | Earth | 0.4257 AU | 165.7 LD | 12.8 km/s |
| 2033-12-30 01:02:00 | Earth | 0.3274 AU | 127.4 LD | 27.2 km/s |
| 2037-06-08 14:14:00 | Venus | 0.1285 AU | 50.0 LD | 26.9 km/s |
| 2037-08-20 14:48:00 | Earth | 0.4043 AU | 157.3 LD | 10.9 km/s |
| 2037-10-18 16:43:00 | Earth | 0.36 AU | 140.1 LD | 11.6 km/s |
| 2039-01-10 11:51:00 | Earth | 0.2331 AU | 90.7 LD | 11.9 km/s |
| 2040-11-26 09:40:00 | Merc | 0.0958 AU | 37.3 LD | 23 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