Q155544
Also known as (557) Violetta, Violetta, (557) 1905 PY
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.
© Marek Nikodem (PPSAE) · via NASA APOD
Key facts
- Discovered by
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 26 January 1905
- Pronunciation
- Italian: [ vjoˈletta ]
- Alternative designations
- 1905 PY
- Observation arc
- 111.25 yr (40634 d)
~1 min read
Article
557 Violetta is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf on 26 January 1905 in Heidelberg. In light of M. F. Wolf's penchant ca. 1905 for naming asteroids after operatic heroines, it is likely that 557 Violetta is named after the protagonist of Giuseppe Verdi's famous opera La Traviata.
Photometric observations of this asteroid made during 2008 at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, gave a light curve with a period of 5.0887 ± 0.0001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.25 ± 0.03 in magnitude.