van Albada is a mid-sized asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter in the main portion of the asteroid belt. NASA JPL has not classified van Albada as potentially hazardous because its orbit does not bring it close to Earth.
van Albada orbits the sun every 1,230 days (3.37 years), coming as close as 1.87 AU and reaching as far as 2.61 AU from the sun. van Albada is about 7.9 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the San Francisco Bay.
The rotation of van Albada has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 2.73 hours.
van Albada's spectral type None (Tholen) / S (SMASSII) indicates that it is likely to contain and .
van Albada's orbit is 0.85 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.
van Albada's orbit is determined by observations dating back to May 6, 1931. It was last officially observed on Feb. 2, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 3,998 observations used to determine its orbit.
The position of van Albada 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.