Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 0.981 AU
- True anomaly
- 243.45°
- Distance from Earth
- 0.423 AU
- As of
- 21 October 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
- 18h 26m 09s
- Declination
- +21° 49′ 22″
- Constellation
- Hercules
- Distance from Earth
- 0.42 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 75.55° — well clear of the Sun
Favours the northern hemisphere; low or below the horizon from far south.
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
- 0.934 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.1691
- Inclination
- 19.66°
- Orbital period
- 329.7 days
- Perihelion
- 0.776 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.092 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 255.25°
- Argument of periapsis
- 230.98°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2461200.5
- Orbit class · ATE
- Aten
- Earth MOID · 0.2 LD
- 0.0006 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 6.358
Orbit quality
Orbit reasonably well determined (uncertainty code 5).
- Observations used
- 106
- Data arc
- 13 days
- First observed
- 8 June 2026
- Last observed
- 21 June 2026
- Residual RMS
- 0.4 ″
- Solution · Otto Matic
- 10 August 2026
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 25.51
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 2035-06-10 04:14 UTC close approach of 2026 LW. Catalogue miss distance 63.8 LD · 2.45 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2035-06-07 to 2035-06-13, 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 approximate: a two-body Kepler propagation of the catalogue orbital elements, not a numerical integration. The Moon’s position is approximate. The inset is a heliocentric view and is approximate.
| When (UTC) | Body | Distance | Lunar distances | Relative speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2030-08-03 08:20:00 | Venus | 0.1184 AU | 46.1 LD | 15.3 km/s |
| 2035-06-10 04:14:00 | Earth | 0.164 AU | 63.8 LD | 13.3 km/s |
| 2044-02-14 17:17:00 | Venus | 0.098 AU | 38.1 LD | 14.7 km/s |
| 2045-11-18 06:30:00 | Earth | 0.175 AU | 68.1 LD | 12.6 km/s |
| 2054-06-05 20:53:00 | Earth | 0.0962 AU | 37.4 LD | 9.9 km/s |
| 2054-12-06 15:31:00 | Earth | 0.1661 AU | 64.6 LD | 12 km/s |
| 2057-08-27 23:40:00 | Venus | 0.0949 AU | 36.9 LD | 14.4 km/s |
| 2063-06-07 05:03:00 | Earth | 0.0389 AU | 15.2 LD | 11.1 km/s |
| 2071-03-10 19:52:00 | Venus | 0.1187 AU | 46.2 LD | 14 km/s |
| 2082-06-06 03:43:00 | Earth | 0.1301 AU | 50.6 LD | 9.9 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