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
- N. Chernykh
- Discovery site
- Crimean Astrophysical Obs.
- Discovery date
- 16 May 1966
- Named after
- Riga (capital city)
- Alternative designations
- 1966 KB · 1935 GE, 1941 FC 1 · 1947 GA, 1950 TF 2 · 1953 GW, 1960 JA · A907 TG, A907 UD
- Minor planet category
~3 min read
Article
1796 Riga, provisional designation 1966 KB, is a dark asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 70 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 16 May 1966, by Russian astronomer Nikolai Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula. It is named after the Latvian capital Riga. It came to opposition on 21 January 2026 at apparent magnitude 15.1 in the constellation of Monoceros.
Orbit and classification