80 Sappho

Also known as (80) Sappho, Sappho

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: N. R. Pogson
Discovery site: Madras Obs.
Discovery date: 2 May 1864
Pronunciation: / ˈ s æ f oʊ /
Named after: Sappho (Greek poet)
Minor planet category: main-belt · ( inner )

~2 min read

Article

80 Sappho (symbol: ) is a large, S-type (stony) main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by English astronomer Norman Pogson on 2 May 1864, and is named after Sappho, the Archaic Greece poet. The asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.2957 AU with a period of 3.48 years and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.2. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 8.68° to the plane of the ecliptic.

13-cm radar observations of this asteroid from the Arecibo Observatory between 1980 and 1985 were used to produce a diameter estimate of 83 kilometres (52 mi). Hanuš et al. (2013) confirmed the polar axis has ecliptic coordinates (λ, β) = (194°, −26°) and listed a rotation period of 14.03087 h.