Ericferrante

Key Facts

• Categorized as a Main-belt Asteroid
• Comparable in size to the island of Manhattan
• Not a Near Earth Object
• Not a Potentially Hazardous Object
• See orbit simulation

Overview

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

Ericferrante orbits the sun every 1,480 days (4.05 years), coming as close as 2.30 AU and reaching as far as 2.79 AU from the sun. Based on its brightness and the way it reflects light, Ericferrante is probably between 3.440 to 7.692 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, very roughly comparable in size to the island of Manhattan.

The rotation of Ericferrante has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 255.83 hours.

No Close Approaches

Ericferrante's orbit is 1.29 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.

Images and Observations

Ericferrante's orbit is determined by observations dating back to Oct. 29, 1997. It was last officially observed on April 3, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 2,935 observations used to determine its orbit.

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 Ericferrante:

• 89 Julia (A866 PA)
• 170 Maria (A877 AA)
• 232 Russia (A883 BA)

References

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

Orbit Simulation

Sky Map

The position of Ericferrante 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 Ericferrante 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.