2024 WJ is an asteroid in the Apollo orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.91 AU to 1.14 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 379.3 days. Orbit from the JPL solution of 29 November 2024.
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 0.918 AU
- True anomaly
- 29.23°
- Distance from Earth
- 0.553 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
- 19h 18m 19s
- Declination
- -21° 55′ 58″
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Distance from Earth
- 0.55 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 66.12° — well clear of the Sun
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
- 1.025 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.1162
- Inclination
- 0.2°
- Orbital period
- 379.3 days
- Perihelion
- 0.906 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.145 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 248.32°
- Argument of periapsis
- 90.4°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · APO
- Apollo
- Earth MOID · 0.0 LD
- 0.0001 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 5.956
Orbit quality
Orbit reasonably well determined (uncertainty code 4).
- Observations used
- 85
- Data arc
- 9 days
- First observed
- 20 November 2024
- Last observed
- 29 November 2024
- Residual RMS
- 0.5 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 29 November 2024
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 29.75
Discovery & classification
Listed by JPL impact monitoring; see the Sentry table for current probabilities.
Close approaches 32 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2049-05-23 23:09 UTC close approach of 2024 WJ. Catalogue miss distance 38.5 LD · 1.48 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2049-05-20 to 2049-05-26, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2049-05-23 23:09:00 | Earth | 0.0989 AU | 38.5 LD | 6.7 km/s |
| 2050-04-16 01:33:00 | Earth | 0.1145 AU | 44.6 LD | 2.9 km/s |
| 2050-07-27 14:29:00 | Earth | 0.0953 AU | 37.1 LD | 3.3 km/s |
| 2051-02-11 14:05:00 | Earth | 0.1517 AU | 59.0 LD | 3.9 km/s |
| 2051-11-15 09:38:00 | Earth | 0.0371 AU | 14.4 LD | 2.7 km/s |
| 2052-11-27 14:20:00 | Earth | 0.1817 AU | 70.7 LD | 9.2 km/s |
| 2078-05-18 07:56:00 | Earth | 0.1856 AU | 72.2 LD | 9.2 km/s |
| 2079-05-30 01:43:00 | Earth | 0.0274 AU | 10.7 LD | 3 km/s |
| 2080-03-04 04:41:00 | Earth | 0.1523 AU | 59.3 LD | 3.8 km/s |
| 2080-09-18 07:12:00 | Earth | 0.0948 AU | 36.9 LD | 3.3 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