112 Iphigenia
Also known as (112) Iphigenia, Iphigenia
main-belt asteroid
Picture of the Day · NASA
Jupiter and Venus from Earth
2026-06-07
It was visible around the world. The sunset conjunction of Jupiter (left) and Venus (right) in 2012 was visible almost no matter where you lived on Earth. Anyone on our planet with a clear western horizon at sunset could see them. That year, a creative photographer traveled away from the town lights of Szubin, Poland to photograph a near closest approach of the two planets. The bright planets were then separated by only three degrees and his daughter struck a humorous pose. A faint red sunset still glowed in the background. Jupiter and Venus are together again this week after sunset, passing within a degree of each other about two days from today.
© Marek Nikodem (PPSAE) · via NASA APOD
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters
- Discovery date
- 19 September 1870
- Pronunciation
- / ˌ ɪ f ɪ dʒ ɪ ˈ n aɪ ə /
- Named after
- Iphigenia
- Alternative designations
- A870 SA
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
Article
112 Iphigenia is a fairly large and exceedingly dark main-belt asteroid. It is classified as a C-type asteroid, and therefore probably has a primitive carbonaceous composition. It was discovered by German-American astronomer C. H. F. Peters on September 19, 1870, and named after Iphigenia, a princess sacrificed by her father in Greek mythology. The orbital elements for 112 Iphigenia were published by German astronomer Friedrich Tietjen in 1871.
This body is orbiting the Sun with a period of 3.80 years and an eccentricity of 0.13. The orbital plane is inclined by 2.6° to the plane of the ecliptic. 112 Iphigenia has a cross-section diameter of ~72 km. Photometric observations of this asteroid during 2007 at the Observatorio Astronómico de Mallorca were used to create a light curve plot, which was published in 2010. This showed a relatively long synodic rotation period of 31.385±0.006 hours (1.3 days) and a brightness variation of 0.30±0.02 magnitude during each cycle. These findings agree with independent results reported in 2008, which gave a period of 31.466±0.001 hours.