2021 UE3 is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.59 AU to 1.44 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 374.6 days. Orbit from the JPL solution of 17 January 2024.
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 0.724 AU
- True anomaly
- 67.35°
- Distance from Earth
- 0.823 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 50m 13s
- Declination
- -25° 56′ 24″
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Distance from Earth
- 0.82 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 46.11° — 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
- 0.417
- Inclination
- 3.82°
- Orbital period
- 374.6 days
- Perihelion
- 0.593 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.441 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 35.37°
- Argument of periapsis
- 243.92°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 1.8 LD
- 0.0047 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 5.918
Orbit quality
Orbit poorly determined (uncertainty code 7).
- Observations used
- 45
- Data arc
- 4 days
- First observed
- 28 October 2021
- Last observed
- 1 November 2021
- Residual RMS
- 0.38 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 17 January 2024
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 25.36
Discovery & classification
Close approaches 37 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2048-02-17 22:16 UTC close approach of 2021 UE3. Catalogue miss distance 188.4 LD · 7.24 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2048-02-14 to 2048-02-20, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2048-02-17 22:16:00 | Earth | 0.4841 AU | 188.4 LD | 28.4 km/s |
| 2049-02-23 17:20:00 | Earth | 0.3366 AU | 131.0 LD | 23.7 km/s |
| 2050-03-02 10:02:00 | Earth | 0.1884 AU | 73.3 LD | 18.9 km/s |
| 2051-03-08 17:26:00 | Earth | 0.057 AU | 22.2 LD | 14.3 km/s |
| 2052-03-12 05:43:00 | Earth | 0.1297 AU | 50.5 LD | 9.8 km/s |
| 2062-10-23 23:29:00 | Earth | 0.0492 AU | 19.1 LD | 12 km/s |
| 2063-10-28 22:57:00 | Earth | 0.0957 AU | 37.2 LD | 16.3 km/s |
| 2064-11-02 23:52:00 | Earth | 0.2411 AU | 93.8 LD | 20.8 km/s |
| 2065-11-09 08:35:00 | Earth | 0.3846 AU | 149.7 LD | 25.3 km/s |
| 2107-11-05 15:00:00 | Earth | 0.2564 AU | 99.8 LD | 21.2 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