5145 Pholus
The reddest large body in the solar system, stained by irradiated organic ice.
Where it is right now
5145 Pholus is in Scutum, 29.7 AU away, magnitude 22.0.
Computed for 2 August 2026, 17:00 UTC, and recomputed at least hourly. This page is cached, so treat the line above as accurate to the hour rather than to the second. The map shows the live position.
Position from a Kepler propagation of the published elements below, accurate to about an arcminute.
Facts
Every line carries the source it came from.
- Diameter
- 190 kmSource: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
- Orbital period
- 91.4 yearsSource: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
- Distance from the Sun
- 20.290 AU on averageSource: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
- Orbit shape
- eccentricity 0.575, inclined 24.8 degrees to the eclipticSource: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
- Class
- CentaurSource: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
- Discovered
- 1992-Jan-09 by SpacewatchSource: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
Physical size
- Mean radius
- 95.0 km
- Diameter
- 190 km across
- Absolute magnitude H
- 7.07
Orbit
Elements are heliocentric, referred to the J2000.0 ecliptic.
- Average distance from the Sun
- 20.290 AU (3,035.3 million km)
- Closest and furthest
- 8.629 AU (1,290.9 million km) to 31.950 AU (4,779.6 million km)
- Eccentricity
- 0.5747, strongly elliptical
- Inclination to the ecliptic
- 24.76 degrees
- Orbital period
- 91.4 years (33,382 days)
- Longitude of ascending node
- 119.29 degrees
- Argument of periapsis
- 354.78 degrees
- Mean anomaly at J2000.0
- 32.37 degrees
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Catalog id pholus. 3,172 objects on the map, of which 171 are hand-authored with sourced facts.