200 Dynamene

Also known as (200) Dynamene, Dynamene

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.

Key facts

Discovered by: C. H. F. Peters , 1879
Discovery date: 27 July 1879
Pronunciation: / d aɪ ˈ n æ m ɪ n iː /
Alternative designations: A879 OA; 1904 CA;, 1955 HZ; 1961 TO 1 ;, 1974 HE 1
Minor planet category: Main belt
Observation arc: 136.47 yr (49845 d)

Article

200 Dynamene is a large dark main-belt asteroid that was discovered by German-American astronomer Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters on July 27, 1879, in Clinton, New York. The name derives from Dynamene, one of the fifty Nereids in Greek mythology. Based upon its spectrum, 200 Dynamene is classified as a C-type asteroid, indicating that it probably has a primitive composition similar to the carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. The spectra of the asteroid displays evidence of aqueous alteration.

Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico in 2011 gave a light curve with a period of 37.394 ± 0.002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.10 ± 0.01 in magnitude. The curve is asymmetrical with four uneven minima and maxima.