Ursa

Key Facts

• Categorized as a Outer Main-belt Asteroid
• Comparable in size to the city of Houston (40.05 km diameter)
• Not a Near Earth Object
• Not a Potentially Hazardous Object
• See orbit simulation

Overview

Ursa is a large asteroid that orbits between Mars and Jupiter in the outer reaches of the main asteroid belt. NASA JPL has not classified Ursa as potentially hazardous because its orbit does not bring it close to Earth.

Ursa orbits the sun every 2,110 days (5.78 years), coming as close as 3.18 AU and reaching as far as 3.26 AU from the sun. Ursa is about 40.1 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the city of Houston.

The rotation of Ursa has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 16.16 hours.

No Close Approaches

Ursa's orbit is 2.20 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

Ursa's orbit is determined by observations dating back to Oct. 31, 1954. It was last officially observed on July 4, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 4,183 observations used to determine its orbit.

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

View asteroid Ursa 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 Ursa:

• 325 Heidelberga (A892 EA)
• 381 Myrrha (A894 AC)
• 580 Selene (A905 YB)

References

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

Orbit Simulation

Sky Map

The position of Ursa 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.