189 Phthia
Also known as (189) Phthia, Phthia
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
- C. H. F. Peters
- Discovery site
- Clinton, New York
- Discovery date
- 9 September 1878
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ θ aɪ . ə /
- Alternative designations
- A878 RA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt
~1 min read
Article
189 Phthia is a bright-coloured, rocky main belt asteroid that was discovered by German-American astronomer Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters on September 9, 1878, in Clinton, New York, and named after Phthia, a region of ancient Greece.
Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, during 2008 gave a light curve with a period of 22.346 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.26 ± 0.02 in magnitude.