Q157639

Also known as (887) Alinda, Alinda

near-Earth 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: M. Wolf
Discovery site: Heidelberg Obs.
Discovery date: 3 January 1918
Pronunciation: / ə ˈ l ɪ n d ə /
Named after: Alinda (city) or, Aboriginal mythology
Alternative designations: 1918 DB

~2 min read

Article

887 Alinda (/əˈlɪndə/) is a very eccentric, near-Earth asteroid with an Earth minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of 0.092 AU. It is the namesake for the Alinda group of asteroids and measures about 4 kilometers in diameter. The stony S-type asteroid was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at Heidelberg Observatory on 3 January 1918.

Due to its high eccentricity and semi-major axis of 0.57 and 2.5 AU, respectively, it is a typical Amor III asteroid. It has both, a 1:3 orbital resonance with Jupiter and a close to 4:1 resonance with Earth. As a result of the resonance with Jupiter that has excited the eccentricity of the orbit over the eons, the asteroid's orbit has evolved to spend time outside of the main-belt. It is the namesake for the Alinda group of asteroids.