Petunia

Key Facts

• Categorized as a Main-belt Asteroid
• Comparable in size to the city of Indianapolis (24.42 km diameter)
• Not a Near Earth Object
• Not a Potentially Hazardous Object
• See orbit simulation

Overview

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

Petunia orbits the sun every 1,780 days (4.87 years), coming as close as 2.49 AU and reaching as far as 3.25 AU from the sun. Petunia is about 24.4 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the city of Indianapolis.

The rotation of Petunia has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 61.28 hours.

No Close Approaches

Petunia's orbit is 1.53 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

Petunia's orbit is determined by observations dating back to Oct. 25, 1921. It was last officially observed on July 1, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 4,346 observations used to determine its orbit.

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

View asteroid Petunia 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 Petunia:

• 33 Polyhymnia (A854 UB)
• 47 Aglaja (A857 RA)
• 129 Antigone (A873 CA)

References

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

Orbit Simulation

Sky Map

The position of Petunia 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.