814 Tauris
Also known as (814) Tauris, Tauris
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
- G. Neujmin
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 2 January 1916
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ t ɔːr ɪ s /
- Named after
- Crimea , (peninsula on the Black Sea in Eastern Europe)
- Alternative designations
- A916 AE · 1927 BA, A907 JE · 1916 YT
~5 min read
Article
814 Tauris (prov. designation: A916 AE or 1916 YT) is a dark and very large background asteroid, approximately 109 kilometers (68 miles) in diameter, located the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 2 January 1916, by astronomer Russian Grigory Neujmin at the Simeiz Observatory on Crimea. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid has a longer-than average rotation period of 35.8 hours. It was named after the ancient name of the Crimean peninsula where the discovering observatory is located.
Orbit and classification