321 Florentina

Also known as (321) Florentina, Florentina

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: 15 October 1891
Pronunciation: / f l ɒr ə n ˈ t aɪ n ə /
Minor planet category: Main belt ( Koronis )
Observation arc: 118.15 yr (43153 d)
Aphelion: 3.01879 AU (451.605 Gm )

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Article

321 Florentina is an S-type (stony) main belt asteroid with a diameter of 28 km. It was discovered by Johann Palisa on 15 October 1891 in Vienna. He named the asteroid for his daughter, Florentine. Between 1874 and 1923, Palisa discovered a total of 122 asteroids.

This asteroid is a dynamic member of the Koronis family. It is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.887 AU with an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.046 and an orbital period of 4.90 yr. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 2.59° to the plane of the ecliptic. Photometric data collected during the asteroid opposition of 2011 was used to construct a light curve that displayed a rotation period of 2.870±0.001 h. This is consistent with previous rotation estimates.