2008 WO2 is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.83 AU to 1.22 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 379.1 days. Orbit from the JPL solution of 15 April 2021.
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 1.218 AU
- True anomaly
- 179.17°
- Distance from Earth
- 1.72 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.
In the sky
- Right ascension
- 11h 50m 12s
- Declination
- -00° 29′ 14″
- Constellation
- Virgo
- Distance from Earth
- 1.72 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 44.02° — near the Sun — look low at dusk or dawn
Visible from both hemispheres.
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.
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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
- 1.025 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.1882
- Inclination
- 2.01°
- Orbital period
- 379.1 days
- Perihelion
- 0.832 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.218 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 238.01°
- Argument of periapsis
- 85.89°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 0.9 LD
- 0.0024 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 5.947
Orbit quality
Orbit poorly determined (uncertainty code 6).
- Observations used
- 27
- Data arc
- 2 days
- First observed
- 20 November 2008
- Last observed
- 22 November 2008
- Residual RMS
- 0.52 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 15 April 2021
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 29.8
Discovery & classification
Listed by JPL impact monitoring; see the Sentry table for current probabilities.
Close approaches 30 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2031-04-25 06:45 UTC close approach of 2008 WO2. Catalogue miss distance 124.0 LD · 4.77 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2031-04-22 to 2031-04-28, 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.
| When (UTC) | Body | Distance | Lunar distances | Relative speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2031-04-25 06:45:00 | Earth | 0.3187 AU | 124.0 LD | 15.5 km/s |
| 2032-05-04 15:21:00 | Earth | 0.0846 AU | 32.9 LD | 8.6 km/s |
| 2034-02-25 07:29:00 | Earth | 0.2279 AU | 88.7 LD | 5.7 km/s |
| 2034-08-18 21:09:00 | Earth | 0.1832 AU | 71.3 LD | 6.2 km/s |
| 2035-01-19 05:49:00 | Earth | 0.2182 AU | 84.9 LD | 5.6 km/s |
| 2036-11-22 01:20:00 | Earth | 0.1368 AU | 53.2 LD | 10.2 km/s |
| 2037-12-02 03:48:00 | Earth | 0.3694 AU | 143.8 LD | 17.3 km/s |
| 2040-10-30 11:48:00 | Venus | 0.1243 AU | 48.4 LD | 1.7 km/s |
| 2059-04-26 04:47:00 | Earth | 0.2941 AU | 114.4 LD | 14.8 km/s |
| 2060-05-05 08:04:00 | Earth | 0.0669 AU | 26.0 LD | 8 km/s |
Next ten from today. 1 lunar distance = 384,400 km. Source: JPL close-approach data.
Sources
- visual properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- orbital elements: JPL SBDB