Thernoe

Key Facts

• Categorized as a Main-belt Asteroid
• Comparable in size to the city of Philadelphia (18.66 km diameter)
• Not a Near Earth Object
• Not a Potentially Hazardous Object
• See orbit simulation

Overview

Thernoe is a large asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter in the main portion of the asteroid belt. NASA JPL has not classified Thernoe as potentially hazardous because its orbit does not bring it close to Earth.

Thernoe orbits the sun every 1,680 days (4.60 years), coming as close as 2.11 AU and reaching as far as 3.43 AU from the sun. Thernoe is about 18.7 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the city of Philadelphia.

The rotation of Thernoe has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 17.20 hours.

Thernoe's spectral type None (Tholen) / K (SMASSII) indicates that it is likely to contain water, iron, nickel, cobalt, nitrogen, and ammonia.

No Close Approaches

Thernoe's orbit is 1.12 AU from Earth's orbit at its closest point. This means that there is an extremely wide berth between this asteroid and Earth at all times.

Orbital simulations conducted by NASA JPL's CNEOS do not show any close approaches to Earth.

Images and Observations

Thernoe's orbit is determined by observations dating back to March 21, 1906. It was last officially observed on July 5, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 3,508 observations used to determine its orbit.

Scientists have been able to determine this object's shape:

View asteroid Thernoe in 3D.

Accessibility and Exploration

This asteroid is not considered a viable target for human exploration by the NHATS study.

Similar Objects

These objects have orbits that share similar characteristics to the orbit of Thernoe:

• 1 Ceres (A801 AA)
• 2 Pallas (A802 FA)
• 28 Bellona (A854 EA)

References

• JPL Small Body Database
• Mission Design
• Sky Finder Chart

Orbit Simulation

Sky Map

The position of Thernoe is indicated by a ◯ pink circle. Note that the object may not be in your current field of view. Use the controls below to adjust position, location, and time.