Fennimore

Key Facts

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

Overview

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

Fennimore orbits the sun every 1,350 days (3.70 years), coming as close as 2.02 AU and reaching as far as 2.77 AU from the sun. Based on its brightness and the way it reflects light, Fennimore is probably between 3.950 to 8.832 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, very roughly comparable in size to the San Francisco Bay.

The rotation of Fennimore has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 18.64 hours.

No Close Approaches

Fennimore's orbit is 1.01 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

Fennimore's orbit is determined by observations dating back to Oct. 25, 1955. It was last officially observed on May 3, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 3,205 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 Fennimore:

• 7 Iris (A847 PA)
• 9 Metis (A848 HA)
• 25 Phocaea (A853 GB)

References

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

Orbit Simulation

Sky Map

The position of Fennimore 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 Fennimore 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.