Jack London

Key Facts

• Categorized as a Main-belt Asteroid
• Comparable in size to the San Francisco Bay
• Not a Near Earth Object
• Not a Potentially Hazardous Object
• See orbit simulation

Overview

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

Jack London orbits the sun every 1,190 days (3.26 years), coming as close as 1.88 AU and reaching as far as 2.51 AU from the sun. Based on its brightness and the way it reflects light, Jack London is probably between 5.183 to 11.589 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, very roughly comparable in size to the San Francisco Bay.

The rotation of Jack London has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 2.99 hours.

Jack London's spectral type None (Tholen) / S (SMASSII) indicates that it is likely to contain and .

No Close Approaches

Jack London's orbit is 0.87 AU from Earth's orbit at its closest point. This means that there is a very 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

Jack London's orbit is determined by observations dating back to Nov. 24, 1954. It was last officially observed on Feb. 1, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 3,475 observations used to determine its orbit.

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 Jack London:

• 8 Flora (A847 UA)
• 43 Ariadne (A857 GA)
• 228 Agathe (A882 QA)

References

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

Orbit Simulation

Sky Map

The position of Jack London 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.

Size Rendering

The above comparison is an artistic rendering that uses available data on the diameter of Jack London to create an approximate landscape rendering with Mount Everest in the background. This approximation is built for full-resolution desktop browsers. Shape, color, and texture of asteroid are imagined.