514 Armida
Also known as (514) Armida, Armida
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
- Max Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 24 August 1903
- Alternative designations
- 1903 MB
- Adjectives
- Armidian
- Observation arc
- 112.50 yr (41092 d)
Article
514 Armida is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. According to the Catalogue of Minor Planet Names and Discovery Circumstances, it is "named for the beautiful legendary sorceress in Torquato Tasso’s (1544–1595) Jerusalem Delivered. She is the leading character in the opera Armida (composed 1777) by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787)." (Numerous other composers have written "Armida" operas; see Armida.)
References