Q110704

Also known as (449) Hamburga, Hamburga

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: M. F. Wolf , A. Schwassmann
Discovery site: Heidelberg Obs.
Discovery date: 31 October 1899
Pronunciation: / h æ m ˈ b ɜːr ɡ ə /
Named after: Hamburg , (German city)
Alternative designations: 1899 EU · 1947 OA, 1948 TO · A901 EA

~3 min read

Article

449 Hamburga is a carbonaceous asteroid from the background population of the intermediate asteroid belt, approximately 75 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomers Max Wolf and Friedrich Schwassmann at Heidelberg Observatory on 31 October 1899, and later named after the city of Hamburg in Germany.

449 was a proposed target for the 1980s-1990s space probe mission proposal CRAF.