Q110370

Also known as (255) Oppavia, Oppavia

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: Johann Palisa
Discovery date: 31 March 1886
Pronunciation: / ɒ ˈ p eɪ v i ə /
Named after: Opava
Alternative designations: A886 FB, 1904 EC, 1924 TA, 1938 VC, 1938 XC, 1945 GD, 1951 SG
Minor planet category: Main belt

Article

255 Oppavia is a sizeable Main belt asteroid. It was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on 31 March 1886 in Vienna and was named after Opava, a town in the Czech Republic, then part of Austria-Hungary, where Palisa was born. It is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.75 AU with an orbital eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.077 and a period of 4.55 yr. The orbital plane is inclined by an angle of 9.47° to the plane of the ecliptic.

Photometric observations made during 2013 indicate a synodic rotation period of 19.499±0.001 h with an amplitude of 0.16±0.02 in magnitude. The unusual light curve shows three uneven minima and maxima per cycle. In 1995, 255 Oppavia was suggested as a peripheral member of the now defunct Ceres asteroid family, but was found to be an unrelated interloper on the basis of its non-matching spectral type. It classified as a dark X-type asteroid in the Tholen taxonomy.