Compute the position of Asteroid 1566 Icarus for any date and time between 1 January 1900
and 31 December 2099
and visualize the results on an interactive sky map.
Asteroid 1566 Icarus is a near-Earth asteroid discovered on June 27, 1949, by Walter Baade, an astronomer at the Palomar Observatory in California. The asteroid is named after the mythological figure Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and fell into the sea. With a diameter of approximately 1.4 kilometers, Icarus is one of the largest and best-studied
near-Earth asteroids. It has a highly eccentric orbit, with a closest approach to the Sun of just 0.19 astronomical units (AU) and a farthest distance of 1.97 AU. Icarus is also notable for its frequent close approaches to Earth, with the asteroid passing within 0.042 AU (6.3 million kilometers) of our planet in 1968 and again in 2015.
Asteroid 1566 Icarus is in the constellation of
Pisces Austrinus,
at a distance of 392,268,399.0 kilometers from Earth.
The current Right Ascension is
21h 30m 46s
and the Declination is -25° 43’ 23”
(apparent coordinates).
The magnitude of Asteroid 1566 Icarus is 20.23 (data provided by JPL Horizons).
High precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Asteroid 1566 Icarus is right now.
Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.
Deep sky finder chart for Asteroid 1566 Icarus.
Field of view: 60x40 arcmins.
View in deep sky object tracker
Also check out Where is Asteroid 1566 Icarus?,
a page that provides all the information needed to find Asteroid 1566 Icarus in the sky and additional links to sky charts.
If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple
customized Quick Access page,
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Distance from Earth
The distance of Asteroid 1566 Icarus from Earth is currently 392,268,399.0 kilometers,
equivalent to 2.6221522884Astronomical Units.
Light takes
21m 48.467s to travel from Asteroid 1566 Icarus and arrive to us.
392,268,399.0
2.6221522884
21m 48.467s
The following chart shows the distance of Asteroid 1566 Icarus from Earth as a function of time.
In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with
an interval of 1 day.
Chart of the distance of Asteroid 1566 Icarus from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)
The value of the reported distance might be somewhat inaccurate around the times of closest approach for objects passing extremely close to Earth.
The value of the distance of 1566 Icarus from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the
Live Position and Data Tracker.
Closest Approach
Between 1 January 1900 and 31 December 2099,
the closest approach of
Asteroid 1566 Icarus to Earth happens on
Sat Jun 15 1968 at a distance of
0.042551 Astronomical Units, or
6,365,561 kilometers:
Sat Jun 15 1968
6,365,561
0.042551
NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed
with a sampling interval of 1 day.
Light Curve
The following chart is the predicted light curve
(visual magnitude as a function of time) of Asteroid 1566 Icarus,
according to the most recent ephemerides data.
Magnitude data is sampled with a 2 days interval and there might be inaccuracies
for objects changing brightness very rapidly during the course of a few days. For comets there could be large discrepancies
between the observed and predicted brightness because of their highly dynamic behaviour.
Chart of the magnitude of Asteroid 1566 Icarus as a function of time
The following table lists the ephemerides of Asteroid 1566 Icarus computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval.
Apparent celestial coordinates are provided.
Compute the position of Asteroid 1566 Icarus for any date and time between 1 January 1900
and 31 December 2099
and display the results on an interactive star map.
Orbital elements. Detailed information
about Asteroid 1566 Icarus orbital parameters.
Interactive orbit visualization. 3d
visualization showing the orbit of Asteroid 1566 Icarus with respect to the major Solar System objects.
15 days ephemerides. Table
showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of Asteroid 1566 Icarus for the past and next 7 days.
Interactive sky chart. An online planetarium application that shows where to locate Asteroid 1566 Icarus in the sky from your location.
Live position tracker. A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate Asteroid 1566 Icarus with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.