Amy

Key Facts

• Categorized as a Main-belt Asteroid
• Comparable in size to the San Francisco Bay (6.72 km diameter)
• Not a Near Earth Object
• Not a Potentially Hazardous Object
• See orbit simulation

Overview

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

Amy orbits the sun every 1,170 days (3.20 years), coming as close as 2.11 AU and reaching as far as 2.23 AU from the sun. Amy is about 6.7 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the San Francisco Bay.

The rotation of Amy has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 3.26 hours.

Amy's spectral type None (Tholen) / C (SMASSII) indicates that it is likely to contain water, iron, nickel, cobalt, nitrogen, and ammonia.

No Close Approaches

Amy's orbit is 1.12 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

Amy's orbit is determined by observations dating back to March 14, 1955. It was last officially observed on June 30, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 3,487 observations used to determine its orbit.

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

View asteroid Amy 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 Amy:

• 149 Medusa (A875 SA)
• 244 Sita (A884 TA)
• 703 Noemi (A910 TD)

References

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

Orbit Simulation

Sky Map

The position of Amy 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 Amy 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.