Varuna is a very large asteroid orbiting the sun beyond Jupiter. NASA JPL does not treat Varuna as potentially hazardous, because its orbit never carries it near Earth.
One lap around the sun takes Varuna 103,000 days (282 years). Over that circuit it swings between 40.51 AU and 45.37 AU from the sun, travelling at an average of 4.54 km/s. At 900.0 kilometers across, Varuna is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Alaska.
Varuna has been watched long enough to time its spin: one full turn on its axis takes 6.34 hours.
At their nearest, the orbits of Varuna and Earth stay 39.6 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 Varuna is pinned down by sightings going back to Nov. 24, 1954, the most recent officially logged on Jan. 24, 2023. The IAU Minor Planet Center holds 813 observations behind that solution.
A ◯ pink circle marks where Varuna sits. It may fall outside your current field of view — use the controls below to change the position, location and time.