Dawn is a large asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter in the main portion of the asteroid belt. NASA JPL has not classified Dawn as potentially hazardous because its orbit does not bring it close to Earth.
Dawn orbits the sun every 1,770 days (4.85 years), coming as close as 2.78 AU and reaching as far as 2.96 AU from the sun. Dawn is about 17.5 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the city of Philadelphia.
The rotation of Dawn has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 43.64 hours.
Dawn's spectral type None (Tholen) / S (SMASSII) indicates that it is likely to contain and .
Dawn's orbit is 1.76 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.
Dawn's orbit is determined by observations dating back to Feb. 9, 1927. It was last officially observed on March 18, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 4,324 observations used to determine its orbit.
Scientists have been able to determine this object's shape:
View asteroid Dawn in 3D.
The position of Dawn 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.