Home
Search Objects
Major Solar System Objects
Comets
Asteroids
Spacecrafts
Star Maps
Orbits
public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 4:47 
Transit: 13:03 
Sunset: 21:19
warning Set your observing location to get relevant data
Search  close
Dwarf Planets and Asteroids » 

Asteroid 3200 Phaethon

Above the horizon.  Rise: 0:17 | Tran: 9:49 | Set: 19:19
Alt: 61.95°   Az: 121.79°   Direction: East-South-East

Asteroid 3200 Phaethon is in the constellation of Perseus, at a distance of 340,935,464.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 03h 20m 25s and the Declination is +32° 25’ 28” (apparent coordinates). The magnitude of asteroid 3200 Phaethon is 18.46.

Finder Charts

The sky charts below show, at different resolutions, the position of asteroid 3200 Phaethon in the sky. Click on each chart to access the interactive star map tool.

Star map showing the position of asteroid 3200 Phaethon in the constellation of Perseus on F, d Y. Field of view: 50x30 degrees. View interactive star map.
Star map showing the position of asteroid 3200 Phaethon in the constellation of Perseus 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 3200 Phaethon 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.

3200 Phaethon
RA: 03h 18m 50s
Dec: +32° 19’ 59”
Simplified high-resolution deep sky chart showing the current position of asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Field of view: 60 x 40 arcminutes. Go to the dedicated page

Equatorial Coordinates

Apparent

03h 20m 25s
+32° 25’ 28”
22h 06m 57s
01h 27m 22s

J2000

03h 18m 50s
+32° 19’ 59”

Additional Information

Perseus
18.46

Rise and Set Times

The following table lists today's rise, transit and set times of asteroid 3200 Phaethon from Greenwich, UK (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 57.5°
Max altitude: 71.0°
Azimuth: 302.5°

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 3200 Phaethon from Earth is currently 340,935,464.0 kilometers, equivalent to 2.2790128122 Astronomical Units. Light takes 18m 57.238s to travel from asteroid 3200 Phaethon and arrive to us.

340,935,464.0
2.2790128122
18m 57.238s

The following graph shows the distance of asteroid 3200 Phaethon 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 3200 Phaethon 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 3200 Phaethon 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 3200 Phaethon to Earth will happen on Monday 14 December 2093 at a distance of 0.021741 Astronomical Units, or 3,252,462 kilometers:

Monday 14 December 2093
3,252,462
0.021741

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 3200 Phaethon, 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 3200 Phaethon as a function of time

Orbital Elements

The following table lists the orbital elements of asteroid 3200 Phaethon at epoch February, 24 2023 00:00 UTC (JD: 2460000.5). Source: JPL Small-Body Database

Element Symbol Value
Orbit eccentricity e 0.88989538
Orbit inclination i 22.27353064°
Perihelion distance q 0.13998062 AU
20,940,802 km
Aphelion distance Q 2.40270321 AU
359,439,285 km
Semi-major axis a 1.27134191 AU
190,190,044 km
Orbital period period 1.4335 years
523.5908 days
Date of perihelion transit Tp October 20, 2023
2,460,238.2886 JD
Next perihelion transit March 27, 2025
2,460,761.8793 JD
Argument of perihelion peri 322.21663354453°
Longitude of the ascending node node 265.17233866659°
Mean anomaly M 196.50611414572°
Mean motion n 0.68755988°/day

Orbit Visualization

The following chart is a 3D animated visualization of the orbit of asteroid 3200 Phaethon 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 3200 Phaethon 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 22 2025 03h 09m 19s +31° 24’ 07” 18.33 Perseus
Jun 23 2025 03h 10m 53s +31° 32’ 46” 18.35 Perseus
Jun 24 2025 03h 12m 27s +31° 41’ 20” 18.36 Perseus
Jun 25 2025 03h 13m 59s +31° 49’ 50” 18.38 Perseus
Jun 26 2025 03h 15m 30s +31° 58’ 15” 18.40 Perseus
Jun 27 2025 03h 17m 01s +32° 06’ 37” 18.42 Perseus
Jun 28 2025 03h 18m 31s +32° 14’ 53” 18.43 Perseus
Jun 29 2025 03h 19m 59s +32° 23’ 06” 18.45 Perseus
Jun 30 2025 03h 21m 29s +32° 31’ 15” 18.47 Perseus
Jul 01 2025 03h 22m 56s +32° 39’ 20” 18.48 Perseus
Jul 02 2025 03h 24m 22s +32° 47’ 21” 18.50 Perseus
Jul 03 2025 03h 25m 48s +32° 55’ 18” 18.51 Perseus
Jul 04 2025 03h 27m 12s +33° 03’ 12” 18.53 Perseus
Jul 05 2025 03h 28m 37s +33° 11’ 03” 18.54 Perseus

Additional Resources on TheSkyLive