Q148685

Also known as (232) Russia, Russia

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 January 1883
Named after: Russia
Alternative designations: A883 BA, 1921 UA, 1929 QA, 1954 SV, 1970 SN 1
Minor planet category: Main belt
Observation arc: 102.35 yr (37382 d)

Article

232 Russia is a large Main belt asteroid. It is classified as a C-type asteroid and is probably composed of primitive carbonaceous material. It was discovered by Johann Palisa on 31 January 1883 in Vienna, who named it after the country of Russia.

Photometric observations of this asteroid collected during 2007 show a rotation period of 21.8 ± 0.2 hours with a brightness variation of 0.2 ± 0.02 magnitude. A follow-up study during 2014 discovered that the rotation period varied depending on the phase angle of observation. The measured rotation varied from 22.016 ± 0.004 hours at a phase angle of 21.5 degrees to 17.0, to 21.904 ± 0.002 hours at phase angles between 5.2 degrees and 9.6 degrees. The reason for this variation has to do with the shape of the asteroid.