214 Aschera

Also known as (214) Aschera, Aschera

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: Johann Palisa
Discovery date: 29 February 1880
Pronunciation: / ə ˈ ʃ ɪər ə /
Alternative designations: A880 DB, 1903 SE, 1947 BP, 1948 JE, 1949 QG 2 , 1949 SX 1 , 1950 XH, 1953 OO
Minor planet category: Main belt
Observation arc

Article

214 Aschera is a Main belt asteroid. It was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on February 29, 1880, in Pola and was named after the Sidonian goddess Asherah. This minor planet is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.61 AU with a low eccentricity of 0.032 and an orbital period of 4.22 yr. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 3.44° to the plane of the ecliptic.

It is classified as a rare E-type asteroid and is fairly faint for an object of its type. The overall diameter is estimated to be 23 km and it has a geometric albedo of 0.52. Photometric data collected during September 2021 was used the generate a lightcurve for 214 Aschera. This showed a rotation period of 6.833±0.004 h with a brightness variation of 0.20 magnitude. Using a tri-axial ellipsoidal model derived from light curve data, the overall shape of the asteroid is estimated to be a/b = 1.24 ± 0.12 and b/c = 1.83 ± 0.10, where a, b, c are the three axes of an ellipsoid.