Description

Asteroid 7 iris at opposition mid january 2022.
Currently at peak brightness at magnitude 7.7

Above image consists of 50 individual frames of 1 minute each, stacked together. When doing this al stationary objects (the stars in the image) remain at exactly the same position in each of the 50 images and therefore remain a point source of light. If an object creates a line instead of a point, this object is moving. The line in the image shows the actual movement of the asteroid 7 Iris currenlty visible in the constellation Gemini during a period of 50 minutes.

The included animated GIF shows the actual movement in an animation created from several images each taken 10 minutes apart.

Previous/older images:

Image data

Name 7 Iris
Type Asteroid
Discovered 1847
Diameter 200 km
Minor planet category Main belt
Aphelion 2.93 AU
Perihelion 1.83 AU
Orbital period 3.68 y
Rotation period 7.13h
Spectral type S-type asteroid
Abs. magnitude 5.51