Watsonia is a large asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter in the main portion of the asteroid belt. NASA JPL has not classified Watsonia as potentially hazardous because its orbit does not bring it close to Earth.
Watsonia orbits the sun every 1,670 days (4.57 years), coming as close as 2.49 AU and reaching as far as 3.03 AU from the sun. Watsonia is about 50.0 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the U.S. state of Rhode Island.
The rotation of Watsonia has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 25.23 hours.
Watsonia's spectral type STGD (Tholen) / L (SMASSII) indicates that it is likely to contain magnesium silicate, iron silicate, and aluminum.
Watsonia's orbit is 1.57 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.
Watsonia's orbit is determined by observations dating back to April 22, 1917. It was last officially observed on July 5, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 16,260 observations used to determine its orbit.
The position of Watsonia 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.