main-belt asteroid
Hygiea
A large, dark carbon-rich asteroid in the outer main belt, so nearly spherical that it may qualify as a dwarf planet.
- Distance from Earth today
- 516.9 million km3.455 AU · light: 28 min 44 s
- Distance from the Sun today
- 469.7 million km3.140 AU
- As of
- 4 November 2026position from NASA/JPL orbital elements
Where it is today
Top view of the plane of Earth’s orbit, compressed distance scale. Open on the big map with the time slider →
Facts
- Diameter
- 407 km
- Mass
- 105 × 10¹⁸ kg
- Rotation period
- 13.8 h
- Semi-major axis
- 3.150 AU (471.3 million km)
- Perihelion
- 2.817 AU
- Aphelion
- 3.484 AU
- Orbital period
- 5.59 years
- Orbital eccentricity
- 0.106
- Orbital inclination
- 3.8°
- Last perihelion
- 11 July 2022
- Next perihelion
- 12 February 2028
- Minimum orbit distance from Earth’s orbit (MOID)
- 1.805 AU (270.0 million km)
- Albedo
- 0.072
Source of the figures: JPL Small-Body Database (public domain).
Discovery: 1849 – Annibale de Gasparis
Description
Hygiea is one of the four largest objects in the asteroid belt and one of the largest dark, carbon-rich asteroids. It was discovered by Annibale de Gasparis in Naples in 1849. In 2019 high-resolution images from ESO's Very Large Telescope showed that it is almost perfectly round, which led to suggestions that it could be classified as a dwarf planet. Hygiea is the largest member of a family of asteroids thought to have been created by a huge impact that may have reshaped it entirely. No spacecraft has visited it.