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.
© Marek Nikodem (PPSAE) · via NASA APOD
Key facts
- Discovered by
- T. Smirnova
- Discovery site
- Crimean Astrophysical Obs.
- Discovery date
- 4 August 1970
- Named after
- Bulgaria , (European country)
- Alternative designations
- 1970 PL · 1970 QD, 1977 RQ 6 · 1980 PY, A923 PB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Flora
~2 min read
Article
2575 Bulgaria, provisional designation 1970 PL, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 4 August 1970, by Russian astronomer Tamara Smirnova at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula. It was named for country Bulgaria.
Classification and orbit