Q156436

Also known as (678) Fredegundis, Fredegundis

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: W. Lorenz
Discovery site: Heidelberg
Discovery date: 22 January 1909
Alternative designations: 1909 FS
Observation arc: 103.26 yr (37,715 d)
Aphelion: 3.1352 AU (469.02 Gm )

~1 min read

Article

678 Fredegundis is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It was discovered 22 January 1909 from Heidelberg by German astronomer K. Wilhelm Lorenz, and was named after the French opera Frédégonde. This object is orbiting at a distance of 2.57 AU with a period of 4.13 years and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.22. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 6.1° to the plane of the ecliptic

This appears to be an M-type asteroid in the Tholen classification and X-type in the Bus and Binzel system. It spans a girth of approximately 42 km and is spinning with a rotation period of 11.6201 hours. Radar observations suggest a bifurcated structure consistent with a contact binary.