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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 4:45 
Transit: 13:02 
Sunset: 21:19
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Dwarf Planets and Asteroids » 

Asteroid 1566 Icarus

Above the horizon.  Rise: 7:21 | Tran: 16:03 | Set: 0:39
Alt: 34.39°   Az: 88.65°   Direction: South

Asteroid 1566 Icarus is in the constellation of Cancer, at a distance of 70,861,462.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 09h 21m 14s and the Declination is +26° 59’ 59” (apparent coordinates). The magnitude of asteroid 1566 Icarus is 18.63.

Finder Charts

The sky charts below show, at different resolutions, the position of asteroid 1566 Icarus in the sky. Click on each chart to access the interactive star map tool.

Star map showing the position of asteroid 1566 Icarus in the constellation of Cancer on F, d Y. Field of view: 50x30 degrees. View interactive star map.
Star map showing the position of asteroid 1566 Icarus in the constellation of Cancer on F, d Y. Field of view: 15x9 degrees. View in interactive star map.

The following map uses photographic imagery from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) to realistically visualize the precise position of asteroid 1566 Icarus against the stars in the background. The horizontal size of the map measures 60 arcminutes. Click on the image to access a more detailed full-screen view.

1566 Icarus
RA: 09h 19m 44s
Dec: +27° 06’ 31”
Simplified high-resolution deep sky chart showing the current position of asteroid 1566 Icarus. Field of view: 60 x 40 arcminutes. Go to the dedicated page

Equatorial Coordinates

Apparent

09h 21m 14s
+26° 59’ 59”
19h 28m 45s
04h 49m 59s

J2000

09h 19m 44s
+27° 06’ 31”

Additional Information

Cancer
18.63

Rise and Set Times

The following table lists today's rise, transit and set times of asteroid 1566 Icarus from Greenwich, UK (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 62.8°
Max altitude: 65.3°
Azimuth: 296.4°

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

Distance from Earth

The distance of asteroid 1566 Icarus from Earth is currently 70,861,462.0 kilometers, equivalent to 0.4736796164 Astronomical Units. Light takes 3m 56.368s to travel from asteroid 1566 Icarus and arrive to us.

70,861,462.0
0.4736796164
3m 56.368s

The following graph shows the distance of asteroid 1566 Icarus from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance is measured in Astronomical Units and the data is sampled with an interval of 1 day.

Chart of the distance of asteroid 1566 Icarus from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)
Note: The values in this chart may not be entirely accurate around the time of closest approach for objects passing very close to Earth at high speed (e.g., Near-Earth Objects).

The value of the distance of 1566 Icarus from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the live position tracker.

Closest Approach to Earth

In the period between January 1, 1900 and December 31, 2099, the closest approach of asteroid 1566 Icarus to Earth happened on Saturday 15 June 1968 at a distance of 0.042551 Astronomical Units, or 6,365,561 kilometers:

Saturday 15 June 1968
6,365,561
0.042551

Note: the values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

Light Curve

The following chart shows the light curve of asteroid 1566 Icarus, i.e., its apparent magnitude as a function of time. The curve is calculated using the latest ephemerides provided by JPL Horizons. The magnitude data is sampled with the interval of 2 days. Because of this sampling, inaccuracies may occur for objects that have large variations of brightness over a few days. For comets, large discrepancies can arise between the calculated brightness and the observations due to their highly dynamic, and not always precisely predictable, behavior.

Chart of the magnitude of asteroid 1566 Icarus as a function of time

Orbital Elements

The following table lists the orbital elements of asteroid 1566 Icarus at epoch February, 24 2023 00:00 UTC (JD: 2460000.5). Source: JPL Small-Body Database

Element Symbol Value
Orbit eccentricity e 0.82686949
Orbit inclination i 22.79956293°
Perihelion distance q 0.18665665 AU
27,923,438 km
Aphelion distance Q 1.96959701 AU
294,647,520 km
Semi-major axis a 1.07812683 AU
161,285,479 km
Orbital period period 1.1195 years
408.8869 days
Date of perihelion transit Tp March 5, 2023
2,460,008.9638 JD
Next perihelion transit April 17, 2024
2,460,417.8507 JD
Argument of perihelion peri 31.441774561579°
Longitude of the ascending node node 87.951654802505°
Mean anomaly M 352.54816273589°
Mean motion n 0.88043904°/day

Orbit Visualization

The following chart is a 3D animated visualization of the orbit of asteroid 1566 Icarus relative to the other major objects in the Solar System. You can access more advanced features using our 3D Solar System Viewer.

15 Days Ephemeris

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.

Date Right AscensionR.A. DeclinationDec. MagnitudeMag Constellation
Jun 19 2025 07h 54m 28s +31° 46’ 12” 19.00 Gemini
Jun 20 2025 08h 05m 12s +31° 26’ 26” 19.00 Gemini
Jun 21 2025 08h 16m 17s +31° 01’ 22” 19.00 Cancer
Jun 22 2025 08h 27m 39s +30° 30’ 41” 19.00 Cancer
Jun 23 2025 08h 39m 20s +29° 54’ 04” 18.96 Cancer
Jun 24 2025 08h 51m 16s +29° 11’ 16” 18.87 Cancer
Jun 25 2025 09h 03m 26s +28° 22’ 05” 18.77 Cancer
Jun 26 2025 09h 15m 46s +27° 26’ 25” 18.67 Cancer
Jun 27 2025 09h 28m 15s +26° 24’ 15” 18.57 Leo
Jun 28 2025 09h 40m 49s +25° 15’ 46” 18.46 Leo
Jun 29 2025 09h 53m 23s +24° 01’ 10” 18.35 Leo
Jun 30 2025 10h 05m 56s +22° 40’ 54” 18.25 Leo
Jul 01 2025 10h 18m 21s +21° 15’ 30” 18.16 Leo
Jul 02 2025 10h 30m 37s +19° 45’ 38” 18.06 Leo

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