Urda

Key Facts

• Categorized as a Main-belt Asteroid
• Comparable in size to the city of Houston (39.94 km diameter)
• Not a Near Earth Object
• Not a Potentially Hazardous Object
• See orbit simulation

Overview

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

Urda orbits the sun every 1,760 days (4.82 years), coming as close as 2.75 AU and reaching as far as 2.96 AU from the sun. Urda is about 39.9 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the city of Houston.

The rotation of Urda has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 13.07 hours.

Urda's spectral type S (Tholen) / Sk (SMASSII) indicates that it is likely to contain and .

No Close Approaches

Urda's orbit is 1.73 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

Urda's orbit is determined by observations dating back to March 29, 1884. It was last officially observed on May 15, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 9,027 observations used to determine its orbit.

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

View asteroid Urda 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 Urda:

• 81 Terpsichore (A864 SA)
• 242 Kriemhild (A884 SA)
• 243 Ida (A884 SB)

References

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

Orbit Simulation

Sky Map

The position of Urda 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.