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
- V. Albitzkij
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 6 November 1923
- Named after
- Lydia Il'inichna Albitskaya , (discoverer's wife)
- Alternative designations
- 1923 PG · A907 JF, A914 JA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background · Cybele
~4 min read
Article
1028 Lydina, provisional designation 1923 PG, is a carbonaceous background asteroid and member of the Cybele group from the outermost regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 82 kilometers (50 miles) in diameter. It was discovered at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula on 6 November 1923, by Soviet astronomer Vladimir Albitsky, who named it after his wife, Lydia Il'inichna Albitskaya. The dark C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 11.68 hours.
Orbit and classification