Tonyspear

Key Facts

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

Overview

Tonyspear is a mid-sized asteroid with an orbit that crosses the orbit of Mars. NASA JPL has not classified Tonyspear as potentially hazardous because its orbit does not bring it close to Earth.

Tonyspear orbits the sun every 1,320 days (3.61 years), coming as close as 1.64 AU and reaching as far as 3.08 AU from the sun. Based on its brightness and the way it reflects light, Tonyspear is probably between 4.815 to 10.766 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, very roughly comparable in size to the San Francisco Bay.

The rotation of Tonyspear has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 74.91 hours.

No Close Approaches

Tonyspear's orbit is 0.78 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

Tonyspear's orbit is determined by observations dating back to May 4, 1973. It was last officially observed on May 9, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 2,956 observations used to determine its orbit.

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

View asteroid Tonyspear 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 Tonyspear:

• 4 Vesta (A807 FA)
• 30 Urania (A854 OA)
• 51 Nemausa (A858 BA)

References

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

Orbit Simulation

Sky Map

The position of Tonyspear 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 Tonyspear 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.