Asteroid Near-Earth Potentially hazardous

Cardea

164207 Cardea (2004 GU9)

Cardea is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.87 AU to 1.14 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 365.9 days; it is about 0.16 km across. Discovered 13 April 2004 by LINEAR. Orbit from the JPL solution of 29 October 2026.

Where is it now

Distance from Sun: 0.993 AU
True anomaly: 94.42°
Distance from Earth: 0.188 AU
As of: 3 November 2026

Two-body Kepler propagation — accurate to ~0.1% for major planets over decades, less so for highly-perturbed bodies. Use JPL Horizons for high precision.

Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. Cardea is 0.188 AU from Earth today (1.6 light-minutes).

In the sky

Right ascension: 09h 40m 28s
Declination: +32° 08′ 42″
Constellation: Leo
Distance from Earth: 0.19 AU
Elongation from the Sun: 84.92° — well clear of the Sun

Favours the northern hemisphere; low or below the horizon from far south.

From your location

See how high it is right now, whether it is up after civil twilight, and when it rises and sets where you are.

Paste a location

How do I find my coordinates?

Google Maps on a computer

Right-click the spot where you'll be observing.
The first line of the menu is the coordinates, e.g. 51.50722, -0.12758 — click it and they're copied.
Paste them above.

Google Maps on a phone

Press and hold the spot to drop a pin.
The coordinates appear in the search bar (or on the pin's card) — tap to copy, then paste above.

A full Google Maps link works too, but the short maps.app.goo.gl share links don't carry coordinates — copy the numbers instead. We round to about a kilometre; that's all the sky calculation needs.

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Your location stays in your browser and is sent only for this calculation. Using a what3words address is optional; if you do, the three words go to what3words to be converted and we don't record them. Set a location first, then you can save an email alert for this object. See our privacy policy.

Two-body approximation, good to about a degree for the planets — enough to find the constellation and know whether it is up.

Orbital elements

Semi-major axis: 1.001 AU
Eccentricity: 0.136
Inclination: 13.65°
Orbital period: 365.9 days
Perihelion: 0.865 AU
Aphelion: 1.137 AU
Longitude of ascending node: 38.37°
Argument of periapsis: 279.31°
Epoch · J2000: 2461200.5
Orbit class · APO: Apollo
Earth MOID · 0.6 LD: 0.0016 AU
Tisserand (Jupiter): 6.042

Orbit quality

Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 0).

Observations used: 367
Data arc: 25.46 years
First observed: 11 May 2001
Last observed: 28 October 2026
Residual RMS: 0.54 ″
Solution · Otto Matic: 29 October 2026

Physical properties

Mean radius: 0.08 km

Visual & observation

Geometric albedo: 0.219
Absolute magnitude (H): 21.19

Discovery & classification

Discovered by: LINEAR
Discovery date: 13 April 2004
Discovery site: Socorro

Cardea was the Roman goddess of the hinge. Roman doors hung on pivot hinges. Cardea was one of at least four Roman deities who presided over doorways. The name was selected by participants in the 2024 naming contest run by the WNYC (New York public radio) <i>RadioLab</i> program and the IAU.

Also known as 164207 · 2004 GU9

Apollo Near-Earth Object Named Potentially Hazardous Asteroid

Close approaches 160 on record

Flyby geometry

Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2027-10-14 19:19 UTC close approach of Cardea. Catalogue miss distance 73.8 LD · 2.84 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2027-10-11 to 2027-10-17, with a mark at UTC midnights and an arrow for the direction of motion. The circle is the Moon’s mean orbit; the Moon is plotted at closest approach. A ray shows the Sun’s direction. The labelled distance is the full separation. The drawn radius is the part that lies in the ecliptic plane. The path is a geocentric ecliptic ephemeris from JPL Horizons. The inset is a heliocentric view and is approximate.

JPL Horizons

When (UTC)	Body	Distance	Lunar distances	Relative speed
2026-10-12 08:25:00	Earth	0.1983 AU	77.2 LD	7.3 km/s
2027-10-14 19:19:00	Earth	0.1896 AU	73.8 LD	7.3 km/s
2028-10-16 07:53:00	Earth	0.1814 AU	70.6 LD	7.3 km/s
2029-10-18 01:25:00	Earth	0.1739 AU	67.7 LD	7.3 km/s
2030-10-19 13:55:00	Earth	0.1675 AU	65.2 LD	7.3 km/s
2031-10-20 20:55:00	Earth	0.1622 AU	63.1 LD	7.3 km/s
2032-10-20 16:36:00	Earth	0.1577 AU	61.4 LD	7.2 km/s
2033-10-21 16:23:00	Earth	0.1542 AU	60.0 LD	7.2 km/s
2034-10-22 04:48:00	Earth	0.1519 AU	59.1 LD	7.2 km/s
2035-10-22 12:11:00	Earth	0.1514 AU	58.9 LD	7.2 km/s

Next ten from today. 1 lunar distance = 384,400 km. Source: JPL close-approach data.

Sources

visual properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
physical properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
visual properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
orbital elements: JPL SBDB