49 Pales

Also known as (49) Pales, Pales

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: Hermann Goldschmidt
Discovery site: Paris Observatory
Discovery date: 19 September 1857
Designation: (49) Pales
Pronunciation: / ˈ p eɪ l iː z /
Named after: Pales

~2 min read

Article

49 Pales (/ˈpeɪliːz/) is a large, dark main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by German-French astronomer Hermann Goldschmidt on 19 September 1857 from his balcony in Paris. The asteroid is named after Pales, the goddess of shepherds in Roman mythology. Since it was discovered on the same night as 48 Doris, geologist Élie de Beaumont suggested naming the two "The Twins".

The orbit of this asteroid has close to a 2:1 commensurability with the orbit of Jupiter. On 17 January 2000, this minor planet was observed occulting a 9th magnitude star from seven locations. These timed chords across the silhouette allowed an estimate to be made of the object's dimensions, yielding a cross-section of 251 km × 160 km.