60 Echo

Also known as (60) Echo, Echo

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: James Ferguson
Discovery date: September 14, 1860
Pronunciation: / ˈ ɛ k oʊ /
Named after: Echo
Minor planet category: Main belt
Adjectives: Echoian / ɛ ˈ k oʊ . i ə n /

Article

60 Echo is a quite large main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by James Ferguson of the United States Naval Observatory in Washington D.C., on September 14, 1860. It was his third and final asteroid discovery. It is named after Echo, a nymph in Greek mythology. James Ferguson had initially named it "Titania", not realizing that name was already used for a satellite of Uranus.

Orbit This object is orbiting the Sun with a period of 3.70 years, a semimajor axis of 2.394 AU, and an eccentricity of 0.18. Its orbital plane is at an inclination of 3.6° to the plane of the ecliptic. This is a stony S-type asteroid with a cross-sectional size of 60.2 km that is spinning with a rotation period of 25.2 hr. Echo has been studied by radar. It is not known to be a member of any asteroid family.