main-belt asteroid
Šteins
A small, diamond-shaped asteroid of a rare bright type, the first target ESA's Rosetta flew past, in 2008.
- Distance from Earth today
- 456.9 million km3.054 AU · light: 25 min 24 s
- Distance from the Sun today
- 321.3 million km2.148 AU
- As of
- 2 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
- 5.16 km
- Rotation period
- 6.0 h
- Semi-major axis
- 2.363 AU (353.5 million km)
- Perihelion
- 2.016 AU
- Aphelion
- 2.710 AU
- Orbital period
- 3.63 years
- Orbital eccentricity
- 0.147
- Orbital inclination
- 9.9°
- Last perihelion
- 28 August 2023
- Next perihelion
- 16 April 2027
- Minimum orbit distance from Earth’s orbit (MOID)
- 1.027 AU (153.6 million km)
- Albedo
- 0.300
Source of the figures: JPL Small-Body Database (public domain).
Discovery: 1969 – Nikolai Chernykh
Description
Šteins is a small main-belt asteroid discovered in 1969 by Nikolai Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and named after the Latvian astronomer Kārlis Šteins. It belongs to the rare E-type asteroids, which have bright surfaces thought to be rich in enstatite. ESA's Rosetta flew past it in September 2008, revealing a cut-diamond shape with a large crater at one end and a chain of smaller pits, possibly linked to internal fractures. Its shape may have been sculpted by sunlight gradually changing its spin over time.