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
- August Kopff
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 11 October 1906
- Alternative designations
- 1906 VQ
- Observation arc
- 109.50 yr (39996 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9930 AU (447.75 Gm )
~1 min read
Article
614 Pia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt. August Kopff discovered 614 Pia on 11 October 1906 at Heidelberg, Germany. Its name may have been inspired by the Pia Observatory at Trieste, Italy, which German astronomer Johann Nepomuk Krieger (1865–1902) named for his wife, Pia. Pia is Italian for "pious."
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