Lucretia

Key Facts

• Categorized as a Main-belt Asteroid
• Comparable in size to the city of Boston (11.04 km diameter)
• Not a Near Earth Object
• Not a Potentially Hazardous Object
• See orbit simulation

Overview

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

Lucretia orbits the sun every 1,180 days (3.23 years), coming as close as 1.90 AU and reaching as far as 2.48 AU from the sun. Lucretia is about 11.0 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the city of Boston.

The rotation of Lucretia has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 4.35 hours.

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

No Close Approaches

Lucretia's orbit is 0.91 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

Lucretia's orbit is determined by observations dating back to April 16, 1890. It was last officially observed on July 5, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 15,671 observations used to determine its orbit.

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

View asteroid Lucretia 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 Lucretia:

• 254 Augusta (A886 FA)
• 352 Gisela (A893 AB)
• 453 Tea (A900 DD)

References

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

Orbit Simulation

Sky Map

The position of Lucretia 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.