Q157030

Also known as (774) Armor, Armor

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: C. le Morvan
Discovery site: Paris
Discovery date: 19 December 1913
Alternative designations: 1913 TW
Observation arc: 107.33 yr (39203 d)
Aphelion: 3.5625 AU (532.94 Gm )

~2 min read

Article

774 Armor is a minor planet (specifically an asteroid) orbiting in the main belt. It was discovered on 13 December 1913, in Paris by French astronomer Charles le Morvan and was named after the Celtic region of Armorica. The asteroid is orbiting at a distance of 3.05 AU with a period of 5.32 yr and an eccentricity of 0.169. The orbital plane is inclined by an angle of 5.56° to the plane of the ecliptic.

In the SMASS-I taxonomy, this is classified as an S-type asteroid. It spans a girth of approximately 50 km. The rotation of this asteroid is commensurate with the length of an Earth day, requiring measurements from more than one latitude for full coverage. Photometric observations from the US and Australia in 2012 provided an estimated rotation period of 25.107±0.005 h with a brightness variation of 0.16±0.02 in magnitude. This is consistent with the results of an earlier study in 2006.