Caltech is a large asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter in the main portion of the asteroid belt. NASA JPL has not classified Caltech as potentially hazardous because its orbit does not bring it close to Earth.
Caltech orbits the sun every 2,060 days (5.64 years), coming as close as 2.84 AU and reaching as far as 3.50 AU from the sun. Caltech is about 58.7 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the U.S. state of Rhode Island.
The rotation of Caltech has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 12.99 hours.
Caltech's spectral type None (Tholen) / Xc (SMASSII) indicates that it is likely to contain iron, nickel, cobalt, and platinum.
Caltech's orbit is 1.94 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.
Caltech's orbit is determined by observations dating back to May 29, 1957. It was last officially observed on July 4, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 3,400 observations used to determine its orbit.
The position of Caltech 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.