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
- M. B. Protić
- Discovery site
- Belgrade Obs.
- Discovery date
- 22 October 1952
- Named after
- Nikola Tesla , (Serbian inventor)
- Alternative designations
- 1952 UW 1 · 1938 UE 1 , 1938 WE · 1949 AA, 1966 UB · 1976 YR 3 , 1980 SV · 1980 TJ 15
- Minor planet category
~2 min read
Article
2244 Tesla, provisional designation 1952 UW1, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 25 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 October 1952, by Serbian astronomer Milorad Protić at the Belgrade Observatory, then Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, now Serbia. It is named after the inventor Nikola Tesla.
Orbit