Paulina

Key Facts

• Categorized as a Main-belt Asteroid
• Comparable in size to the city of New York (32.77 km diameter)
• Not a Near Earth Object
• Not a Potentially Hazardous Object
• See orbit simulation

Overview

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

Paulina orbits the sun every 1,670 days (4.57 years), coming as close as 2.38 AU and reaching as far as 3.12 AU from the sun. Paulina is about 32.8 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the city of New York.

The rotation of Paulina has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 6.50 hours.

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

No Close Approaches

Paulina's orbit is 1.38 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

Paulina's orbit is determined by observations dating back to Nov. 13, 1890. It was last officially observed on Feb. 19, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 5,460 observations used to determine its orbit.

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

View asteroid Paulina 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 Paulina:

• 36 Atalante (A855 TA)
• 41 Daphne (A856 KA)
• 55 Pandora (A858 RB)

References

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

Orbit Simulation

Sky Map

The position of Paulina 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.