2018 LE1 is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.81 AU to 1.23 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 377.7 days. Orbit from the JPL solution of 15 April 2021.
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 1.185 AU
- True anomaly
- 147.38°
- Distance from Earth
- 1.746 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
- 17h 27m 18s
- Declination
- -22° 17′ 15″
- Constellation
- Ophiuchus
- Distance from Earth
- 1.75 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 40.54° — near the Sun — look low at dusk or dawn
Favours the southern hemisphere; low or below the horizon from far north.
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
- 1.023 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.2059
- Inclination
- 1.8°
- Orbital period
- 377.7 days
- Perihelion
- 0.812 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.233 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 245.37°
- Argument of periapsis
- 262.23°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 0.3 LD
- 0.0009 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 5.956
Orbit quality
Orbit reasonably well determined (uncertainty code 5).
- Observations used
- 55
- Data arc
- 16 days
- First observed
- 5 June 2018
- Last observed
- 21 June 2018
- Residual RMS
- 0.42 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 15 April 2021
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 27.5
Discovery & classification
Listed by JPL impact monitoring; see the Sentry table for current probabilities.
Close approaches 55 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2042-10-26 09:23 UTC close approach of 2018 LE1. Catalogue miss distance 190.1 LD · 7.31 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2042-10-23 to 2042-10-29, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2042-10-26 09:23:00 | Earth | 0.4884 AU | 190.1 LD | 20.6 km/s |
| 2043-01-07 19:31:00 | Venus | 0.1231 AU | 47.9 LD | 1.2 km/s |
| 2043-11-05 08:10:00 | Earth | 0.2822 AU | 109.8 LD | 14.4 km/s |
| 2044-11-14 04:52:00 | Earth | 0.0721 AU | 28.0 LD | 8.1 km/s |
| 2045-10-29 12:31:00 | Earth | 0.1286 AU | 50.1 LD | 3.5 km/s |
| 2045-12-23 13:19:00 | Earth | 0.1244 AU | 48.4 LD | 4.1 km/s |
| 2046-01-08 20:39:00 | Venus | 0.1492 AU | 58.1 LD | 2.6 km/s |
| 2046-09-11 15:02:00 | Earth | 0.2133 AU | 83.0 LD | 5.3 km/s |
| 2047-02-19 04:46:00 | Earth | 0.179 AU | 69.7 LD | 6.2 km/s |
| 2047-08-08 04:14:00 | Earth | 0.2167 AU | 84.3 LD | 5.4 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