Irene is a very large asteroid circling the sun between Mars and Jupiter, inside the main asteroid belt. NASA JPL does not treat Irene as potentially hazardous, because its orbit never carries it near Earth.
One lap around the sun takes Irene 1,520 days (4.16 years). Over that circuit it swings between 2.16 AU and 3.01 AU from the sun, travelling at an average of 18.52 km/s. At 152.0 kilometers across, Irene is bigger than 99% of known asteroids — roughly the size of the U.S. state of New Jersey.
Irene has been watched long enough to time its spin: one full turn on its axis takes 15.03 hours.
Irene is classed as S on the Tholen scale, S on SMASSII.
At their nearest, the orbits of Irene and Earth stay 1.18 AU apart. That is a comfortable margin, and it holds at every point in the orbit.
Orbital simulations run by NASA JPL's CNEOS turn up no close approaches to Earth.
The orbit of Irene is pinned down by sightings going back to May 20, 1851, the most recent officially logged on July 4, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center holds 3,122 observations behind that solution.
A ◯ pink circle marks where Irene sits. It may fall outside your current field of view — use the controls below to change the position, location and time.