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
- H. E. Wood
- Discovery site
- Johannesburg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 30 May 1924
- Named after
- Pafuri Triangle /River , (in South Africa)
- Alternative designations
- 1924 SA · 1937 XB, 1947 SA · 1961 AQ, 1965 YJ · A917 CC
- Minor planet category
Article
1032 Pafuri, provisional designation 1924 SA, is a dark background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 65 kilometers (40 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 30 May 1924, by English astronomer Harry Edwin Wood at the Union Observatory in Johannesburg, South Africa. The asteroid was named for the river in the Pafuri Triangle in South Africa, created by the confluence of the Limpopo and Levubu rivers. The body's spectral type and rotation period are still poorly determined.
Orbit and classification