Tombaugh is a large asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter in the main portion of the asteroid belt. NASA JPL has not classified Tombaugh as potentially hazardous because its orbit does not bring it close to Earth.
Tombaugh orbits the sun every 1,920 days (5.26 years), coming as close as 2.71 AU and reaching as far as 3.34 AU from the sun. Tombaugh is about 32.3 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the city of New York.
The rotation of Tombaugh has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 7.24 hours.
Tombaugh's spectral type XSCU (Tholen) / Xc (SMASSII) indicates that it is likely to contain iron, nickel, cobalt, and platinum.
Tombaugh's orbit is 1.71 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.
Tombaugh's orbit is determined by observations dating back to March 10, 1920. It was last officially observed on Dec. 25, 2022. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 3,750 observations used to determine its orbit.
The position of Tombaugh 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.