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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 4:56 
Transit: 13:05 
Sunset: 21:13
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Dwarf Planets and Asteroids » 

Asteroid 87 Sylvia

Above the horizon.  Rise: 2:44 | Tran: 10:38 | Set: 18:32
Alt: 23.25°   Az: 84.74°   Direction: East

Asteroid 87 Sylvia is in the constellation of Taurus, at a distance of 631,809,979.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 04h 52m 23s and the Declination is +21° 10’ 40” (apparent coordinates). The magnitude of asteroid 87 Sylvia is 13.41.

Finder Charts

The sky charts below show, at different resolutions, the position of asteroid 87 Sylvia in the sky. Click on each chart to access the interactive star map tool.

Star map showing the position of asteroid 87 Sylvia in the constellation of Taurus on F, d Y. Field of view: 50x30 degrees. View interactive star map.
Star map showing the position of asteroid 87 Sylvia in the constellation of Taurus 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 87 Sylvia 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.

87 Sylvia
RA: 04h 50m 52s
Dec: +21° 08’ 10”
Simplified high-resolution deep sky chart showing the current position of asteroid 87 Sylvia. Field of view: 60 x 40 arcminutes. Go to the dedicated page

Equatorial Coordinates

Apparent

04h 52m 23s
+21° 10’ 40”
18h 44m 30s
23h 36m 53s

J2000

04h 50m 52s
+21° 08’ 10”

Additional Information

Taurus
13.41

Rise and Set Times

The following table lists today's rise, transit and set times of asteroid 87 Sylvia from Greenwich, UK (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 68.8°
Max altitude: 59.7°
Azimuth: 291.2°

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 87 Sylvia from Earth is currently 631,809,979.0 kilometers, equivalent to 4.2233888493 Astronomical Units. Light takes 35m 7.491s to travel from asteroid 87 Sylvia and arrive to us.

631,809,979.0
4.2233888493
35m 7.491s

The following graph shows the distance of asteroid 87 Sylvia 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 87 Sylvia 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 87 Sylvia 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 87 Sylvia to Earth will happen on Monday 22 August 2095 at a distance of 2.153632 Astronomical Units, or 322,178,836 kilometers:

Monday 22 August 2095
322,178,836
2.153632

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 87 Sylvia, 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 87 Sylvia as a function of time

Orbital Elements

The following table lists the orbital elements of asteroid 87 Sylvia at epoch February, 24 2023 00:00 UTC (JD: 2460000.5). Source: JPL Small-Body Database

Element Symbol Value
Orbit eccentricity e 0.09396728
Orbit inclination i 10.87984080°
Perihelion distance q 3.15090993 AU
471,369,417 km
Aphelion distance Q 3.80448995 AU
569,143,597 km
Semi-major axis a 3.47769994 AU
520,256,507 km
Orbital period period 6.4855 years
2,368.8447 days
Date of perihelion transit Tp February 25, 2024
2,460,365.5131 JD
Next perihelion transit August 20, 2030
2,462,734.3578 JD
Argument of perihelion peri 264.28815649744°
Longitude of the ascending node node 73.010384379893°
Mean anomaly M 304.52793116662°
Mean motion n 0.15197282°/day

Orbit Visualization

The following chart is a 3D animated visualization of the orbit of asteroid 87 Sylvia 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 87 Sylvia 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
Jul 03 2025 04h 42m 51s +20° 45’ 01” 13.38 Taurus
Jul 04 2025 04h 44m 11s +20° 48’ 44” 13.39 Taurus
Jul 05 2025 04h 45m 31s +20° 52’ 24” 13.39 Taurus
Jul 06 2025 04h 46m 51s +20° 56’ 01” 13.40 Taurus
Jul 07 2025 04h 48m 10s +20° 59’ 36” 13.40 Taurus
Jul 08 2025 04h 49m 31s +21° 03’ 08” 13.40 Taurus
Jul 09 2025 04h 50m 50s +21° 06’ 37” 13.41 Taurus
Jul 10 2025 04h 52m 09s +21° 10’ 03” 13.41 Taurus
Jul 11 2025 04h 53m 27s +21° 13’ 27” 13.41 Taurus
Jul 12 2025 04h 54m 46s +21° 16’ 48” 13.42 Taurus
Jul 13 2025 04h 56m 04s +21° 20’ 07” 13.42 Taurus
Jul 14 2025 04h 57m 22s +21° 23’ 22” 13.42 Taurus
Jul 15 2025 04h 58m 40s +21° 26’ 35” 13.43 Taurus
Jul 16 2025 04h 59m 57s +21° 29’ 45” 13.43 Taurus

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