2021 ET is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.75 AU to 1.29 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 374.4 days. Orbit from the JPL solution of 5 February 2025.
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 0.763 AU
- True anomaly
- 332.81°
- Distance from Earth
- 0.98 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 43m 14s
- Declination
- -33° 05′ 22″
- Constellation
- Scorpius
- Distance from Earth
- 0.98 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 45.56° — 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
- 1.017 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.2667
- Inclination
- 28.74°
- Orbital period
- 374.4 days
- Perihelion
- 0.746 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.288 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 132.31°
- Argument of periapsis
- 233.27°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 46.7 LD
- 0.1201 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 5.865
Orbit quality
Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 1).
- Observations used
- 198
- Data arc
- 5.85 years
- First observed
- 30 March 2019
- Last observed
- 4 February 2025
- Residual RMS
- 0.56 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 5 February 2025
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 21.51
Discovery & classification
Close approaches 25 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2059-07-29 06:27 UTC close approach of 2021 ET. Catalogue miss distance 73.4 LD · 2.82 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2059-07-26 to 2059-08-01, 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. At closest approach the object is north of the ecliptic. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2059-07-29 06:27:00 | Earth | 0.1887 AU | 73.4 LD | 17.9 km/s |
| 2065-01-27 00:27:00 | Earth | 0.1313 AU | 51.1 LD | 15.4 km/s |
| 2066-01-26 13:04:00 | Earth | 0.1452 AU | 56.5 LD | 17.2 km/s |
| 2100-07-26 23:15:00 | Earth | 0.1893 AU | 73.7 LD | 18 km/s |
| 2106-01-28 19:43:00 | Earth | 0.1425 AU | 55.5 LD | 15.3 km/s |
| 2107-01-27 20:39:00 | Earth | 0.133 AU | 51.8 LD | 16.8 km/s |
| 2141-07-29 17:13:00 | Earth | 0.1884 AU | 73.3 LD | 17.9 km/s |
| 2147-01-28 15:07:00 | Earth | 0.1279 AU | 49.8 LD | 15.5 km/s |
| 2148-01-28 08:33:00 | Earth | 0.1524 AU | 59.3 LD | 17.4 km/s |
| 2181-07-26 03:31:00 | Earth | 0.1907 AU | 74.2 LD | 18.1 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