Home
Search Objects
Major Solar System Objects
Comets
Asteroids
Spacecrafts
Star Maps
Orbits
public  Aurora, Philippines Aurora, Philippines  ⓘ
TimezoneAsia/Manila
Sunrise: 5:36 
Transit: 12:00 
Sunset: 18:25
Search  close
Dwarf Planets and Asteroids » 

Asteroid 17 Thetis

Above the horizon.  Rise: 3:26 | Tran: 9:45 | Set: 16:02
Alt: 48.96°   Az: 283.85°   Direction: West-North-West

Asteroid 17 Thetis is in the constellation of Taurus, at a distance of 537,186,945.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 05h 02m 58s and the Declination is +19° 00’ 15” (apparent coordinates). The magnitude of asteroid 17 Thetis is 13.51.

Finder Charts

The sky charts below show, at different resolutions, the position of asteroid 17 Thetis in the sky. Click on each chart to access the interactive star map tool.

Star map showing the position of asteroid 17 Thetis 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 17 Thetis 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 17 Thetis 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.

17 Thetis
RA: 05h 01m 29s
Dec: +18° 58’ 08”
Simplified high-resolution deep sky chart showing the current position of asteroid 17 Thetis. Field of view: 60 x 40 arcminutes. Go to the dedicated page

Equatorial Coordinates

Apparent

05h 02m 58s
+19° 00’ 15”
02h 49m 34s
07h 52m 33s

J2000

05h 01m 29s
+18° 58’ 08”

Additional Information

Taurus
13.51

Rise and Set Times

The following table lists today's rise, transit and set times of asteroid 17 Thetis from Aurora, Philippines (all times relative to the local timezone Asia/Manila):

Azimuth: 71.0°
Max altitude: 84.2°
Azimuth: 289.0°

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 17 Thetis from Earth is currently 537,186,945.0 kilometers, equivalent to 3.5908729348 Astronomical Units. Light takes 29m 51.863s to travel from asteroid 17 Thetis and arrive to us.

537,186,945.0
3.5908729348
29m 51.863s

The following graph shows the distance of asteroid 17 Thetis 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 17 Thetis 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 17 Thetis 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 17 Thetis to Earth happened on Wednesday 15 June 1938 at a distance of 1.120642 Astronomical Units, or 167,645,665 kilometers:

Wednesday 15 June 1938
167,645,665
1.120642

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 17 Thetis, 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 17 Thetis as a function of time

Orbital Elements

The following table lists the orbital elements of asteroid 17 Thetis at epoch February, 24 2023 00:00 UTC (JD: 2460000.5). Source: JPL Small-Body Database

Element Symbol Value
Orbit eccentricity e 0.13257020
Orbit inclination i 5.59200088°
Perihelion distance q 2.14367299 AU
320,688,915 km
Aphelion distance Q 2.79891255 AU
418,711,358 km
Semi-major axis a 2.47129277 AU
369,700,137 km
Orbital period period 3.8850 years
1,419.0076 days
Date of perihelion transit Tp October 22, 2023
2,460,240.3925 JD
Next perihelion transit September 10, 2027
2,461,659.4001 JD
Argument of perihelion peri 135.72403018034°
Longitude of the ascending node node 125.53993295224°
Mean anomaly M 299.13965437649°
Mean motion n 0.25369843°/day

Orbit Visualization

The following chart is a 3D animated visualization of the orbit of asteroid 17 Thetis relative to the other major objects in the Solar System. You can access more advanced features using our 3D Solar System Viewer.

Physical Properties

The table below lists the known key physical properties of asteroid 17 Thetis. The source for this data is the JPL Small-Body Database.

Physical Parameter Value Relative to Earth
Diameter 90.04 km 0.0071
Sideral Rotation 12.2705 hours 0.5127
Absolute Magnitude 7.76
Geometric Albedo 0.1715

15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of asteroid 17 Thetis 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 51m 26s +18° 42’ 26” 13.48 Taurus
Jul 04 2025 04h 53m 03s +18° 45’ 07” 13.49 Taurus
Jul 05 2025 04h 54m 39s +18° 47’ 46” 13.49 Taurus
Jul 06 2025 04h 56m 16s +18° 50’ 19” 13.49 Taurus
Jul 07 2025 04h 57m 52s +18° 52’ 48” 13.50 Taurus
Jul 08 2025 04h 59m 28s +18° 55’ 13” 13.50 Taurus
Jul 09 2025 05h 01m 04s +18° 57’ 33” 13.50 Taurus
Jul 10 2025 05h 02m 40s +18° 59’ 50” 13.51 Taurus
Jul 11 2025 05h 04m 15s +19° 02’ 01” 13.51 Taurus
Jul 12 2025 05h 05m 51s +19° 04’ 10” 13.51 Taurus
Jul 13 2025 05h 07m 26s +19° 06’ 13” 13.52 Taurus
Jul 14 2025 05h 09m 01s +19° 08’ 13” 13.52 Taurus
Jul 15 2025 05h 10m 36s +19° 10’ 08” 13.52 Taurus
Jul 16 2025 05h 12m 11s +19° 11’ 59” 13.53 Taurus

Additional Resources on TheSkyLive