(20220) BEEBE

FOR FAMILY, FRIENDS & THE CURIOUS

An asteroid
named Beebe.

In 2026, an asteroid was named after Wilson Beebe. This is a place for family and friends to see it in telescope photos and learn a little about it.

Press play to compare the photos. The circle shows where Beebe is expected to be.

How it got the name
ZTF / PALOMAR OBSERVATORY2022-11-16
ZTF g-band exposure at 06:43:41 UTC on 2022-11-16; a field of stars around Beebe's predicted position.N ↑
E ←60″
1 / 4
Exposure frame
06:43:41 UTC · g band
165.5 minutes of observations. Playback speeds up time.Circle = predicted position · visibility unreviewed
What am I looking at?

Each frame is a real telescope exposure of the same patch of sky. Stars stay approximately in place; an asteroid moves. The circle follows Beebe’s predicted location, not a measured detection. Images use g, r filters, so stars may change brightness between frames. These images do not show Beebe’s surface.

Open this source FITS image
Featured sequence · 16 November 2022
WHERE IT ORBITSThe main asteroid belt
ONE TRIP AROUND THE SUN4.54 Earth years
NAMED ON9 July 2026

RECENTLY ADDED

More telescope photos

Explore the archive

New photos are added as they become available. The observing date is when the telescope took the photo; the added date is when it appeared on this site.

Star field around Beebe on 24 July 2026▶ SEQUENCE

24 Jul 2026

3 exposures · g / i / r bands

Added 22 Sept 2026
Star field around Beebe on 23 July 2026STILL FRAMES

23 Jul 2026

2 exposures · i / r bands

Added 22 Sept 2026
Star field around Beebe on 22 July 2026STILL FRAMES

22 Jul 2026

2 exposures · g / r bands

Added 22 Sept 2026

WHY BEEBE?

How it got
the name.

The asteroid was discovered in 1997 and received its name in 2026. The name recognizes Wilson’s work on software for astronomy.

Read the official naming record

An earlier photo

The earliest observation now associated with Beebe predates its discovery by five years. An earlier observation linked to an object later is called a precovery.

Discovery

Eric W. Elst discovered the asteroid at La Silla Observatory in Chile. Its first designation was 1997 GA40.

Named Beebe

The name honors Wilson Beebe, whose software helps find faint objects beyond Neptune by aligning and adding survey images—a technique called shift-and-stack.

The official citation
Wilson Beebe (b. 1993) is an American researcher at the University of Washington, where he develops software for discovering faint trans-Neptunian objects with novel shift-and-stack techniques in large astronomical survey image data, especially the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time.

WGSBN Bulletin 6, no. 11, p. 10 · 9 July 2026

ABOUT THE ASTEROID

What kind of
asteroid is it?

Beebe is one of many asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. Its name gives us a good reason to learn about one of them.

Beebe’s place between Mars and JupiterAn orbital-distance schematic with Beebe highlighted at about 2.74 astronomical units. Orbital tilt and eccentricity are omitted; body sizes are exaggerated. It does not show current positions.SUNEARTHMARSJUPITERBEEBE2.74 au
Orbital-distance schematic · 1 au is Earth’s distance scale from the Sun.
Tilt and eccentricity omitted; dots are not current positions.

Between Mars
and Jupiter.

Beebe travels around the Sun in a gently oval orbit, tilted about 13.5° from Earth’s orbital plane. JPL classifies it as a main-belt asteroid, not a near-Earth asteroid.

2.48au, closest to the Sun
3.00au, farthest from the Sun

One astronomical unit (au) is about the distance from Earth to the Sun. It is a handy unit for these very large distances.

SIZE

How big is it?

We don’t have a measured diameter. A size estimate depends on how much sunlight its surface reflects. Try the slider: a darker asteroid would need to be bigger to look as bright.

Darker surfaceBrighter surface
7.1 kmInferred diameter, not a measurement
Show the assumptions

For absolute magnitude H = 13.87, diameter D = 1329 × 10−H/5 / √p, in kilometers. The illustrative reflectivity range of 5.7–25% implies about 4.5–9.4 km. It is not a confidence interval. No diameter or reflectivity is listed in the current JPL record.

ITS SPIN

How quickly
does it spin?

A published lightcurve suggests Beebe rotates once in about 3 hours. But the coverage was incomplete: the period may be wrong by roughly 30%.

A lightcurve records changing brightness as an object turns. The current JPL entry reports 2.99603 hours, from TESS photometry via the Lightcurve Database.

DISTANCE FROM EARTH

Where is Beebe?

Prediction for

Distance from Earth
2.02 au
Light travel time
16.8 minutes
Coordinates & brightness

RA 01 36 17.28
Dec +06 18 51.0
Predicted V magnitude 18.27

As seen from Earth’s center. Far too faint for unaided eyes. Retrieved 2026-09-29.

Want the numbers? Orbit details & observation records

The orbit, with its context

JPL solution 60 · computed 2026-03-12 15:25:58 · epoch JD 2461200.5 · equinox J2000. Sigmas are the values returned by JPL; see its documentation for interpretation.

ElementValueReported σUnit
semi-major axis2.739979978.387e-10au
aphelion distance3.004714009.198e-10au
eccentricity0.09661896788.052e-10—
inclination; angle with respect to x-y ecliptic plane13.52890604.130e-8deg
mean anomaly178.8150145.362e-7deg
mean motion0.2173116429.978e-11deg/d
longitude of the ascending node188.5101771.481e-7deg
sidereal orbital period1656.607067.606e-7d
perihelion distance2.475245932.852e-9au
time of perihelion passage2460377.652.126e-6TDB
argument of perihelion350.8286792.968e-7deg

4,729 observations used by JPL; fit arc 1992-04-07 to 2025-09-24; RMS residual .43671 arcseconds; condition code 0. Fit residuals are not a guarantee of future prediction accuracy. Earth MOID: 1.47919 au, a distance between orbital paths, not today’s distance.

4,367 primary records in this MPC snapshot

The downloaded file contains 5,117 text records, including 750 satellite-position continuation records. These are counted separately. JPL’s orbit-fit count uses a different record selection/counting context.

TESS (C57)738
ATLAS, Haleakalā (T05)513
ATLAS, Mauna Loa (T08)496
Catalina Sky Survey (703)399
LINEAR, Socorro (704)382
P07 (P07)247
Pan-STARRS 1 (F51)230
W68 (W68)224
Sources, downloads & processing notes
THE PHOTO COLLECTION

Have a look through the photos.

Choose a date to view the photos, play a sequence, or download a copy.

Browse telescope photos