Q157076

Also known as (785) Zwetana, Zwetana

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: Adam Massinger
Discovery site: Heidelberg
Discovery date: 30 March 1914
Alternative designations: 1914 UN
Observation arc: 95.43 yr (34854 d)
Aphelion: 3.1099 AU (465.23 Gm )

~2 min read

Article

785 Zwetana is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by Adam Massinger, an assistant at the Heidelberg Observatory, on March 30, 1914. It was named for the daughter of Kiril Popoff, a Bulgarian astronomer. This asteroid is orbiting 2.57 AU from the Sun with an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.21 and a period of 4.12 yr. The orbital plane is inclined by an angle of 12.8° to the plane of the ecliptic.

This asteroid spans a girth of ~48.5 km and it has a Tholen taxonomic class of M. Radar observations indicate that it is almost certainly metallic. The near infrared spectra suggests the presence of spinel on the surface, which is indicative of calcium–aluminium-rich inclusions. The best meteorite analog to the near infrared spectrum of this object is the enstatite chondrite, Abee.