Q157398

Also known as (846) Lipperta, Lipperta

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: Gyllenberg, K., Bergedorf
Discovery date: 26 November 1916
Minor planet category: Main belt
Observation arc: 99.23 yr (36245 d)
Aphelion: 3.6963 AU (552.96 Gm ) (Q)
Perihelion: 2.5562 AU (382.40 Gm) (q)

~1 min read

Article

846 Lipperta is a slowly rotating Themistian asteroid located in the asteroid belt at a distance of 3.1 AU. It has a slow rotation period of 1641 hours making it one of the slowest rotating objects in the solar system discovered.

Based on lightcurve studies, Lipperta has a rotation period of 1641 hours, but this figure is based on less than full coverage, so that the period may be wrong by 30 percent. The lack of variation in brightness could be caused by (a) very slow rotation, (b) near pole-on viewing aspect, or (c) a spherical body with uniform albedo.