20000 Varuna
One of the first large Kuiper belt objects found, spinning fast enough to deform its shape.
Where it is right now
20000 Varuna is in Cancer, 45.3 AU away, magnitude 20.4.
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
- 900 kmSource: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
- Orbital period
- 283.9 yearsSource: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
- Distance from the Sun
- 43.200 AU on averageSource: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
- Orbit shape
- eccentricity 0.052, inclined 17.1 degrees to the eclipticSource: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
- Class
- Trans-neptunian objectSource: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
- Discovered
- 2000-Nov-28 by SpacewatchSource: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
Physical size
- Mean radius
- 450 km
- Diameter
- 900 km across
- Absolute magnitude H
- 3.79
Orbit
Elements are heliocentric, referred to the J2000.0 ecliptic.
- Average distance from the Sun
- 43.200 AU (6,462.6 million km)
- Closest and furthest
- 40.970 AU (6,129.1 million km) to 45.430 AU (6,796.2 million km)
- Eccentricity
- 0.0516, slightly elliptical
- Inclination to the ecliptic
- 17.14 degrees
- Orbital period
- 284 years
- Longitude of ascending node
- 97.22 degrees
- Argument of periapsis
- 273.36 degrees
- Mean anomaly at J2000.0
- 82.15 degrees
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Catalog id varuna. 3,172 objects on the map, of which 171 are hand-authored with sourced facts.