Ruperto-Carola

Key Facts

• Categorized as a Main-belt Asteroid
• Comparable in size to the city of Cleveland, Ohio (14.03 km diameter)
• Not a Near Earth Object
• Not a Potentially Hazardous Object
• See orbit simulation

Overview

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

Ruperto-Carola orbits the sun every 1,650 days (4.52 years), coming as close as 1.84 AU and reaching as far as 3.63 AU from the sun. Ruperto-Carola is about 14.0 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the city of Cleveland, Ohio.

The rotation of Ruperto-Carola has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 2.74 hours.

Ruperto-Carola's spectral type None (Tholen) / S (SMASSII) indicates that it is likely to contain and .

No Close Approaches

Ruperto-Carola's orbit is 0.86 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

Ruperto-Carola's orbit is determined by observations dating back to Jan. 17, 1893. It was last officially observed on July 4, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 5,846 observations used to determine its orbit.

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

View asteroid Ruperto-Carola 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 Ruperto-Carola:

• 36 Atalante (A855 TA)
• 38 Leda (A856 AA)
• 110 Lydia (A870 HA)

References

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

Orbit Simulation

Sky Map

The position of Ruperto-Carola 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.