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
- L. Chernykh
- Discovery site
- Crimean Astrophysical Obs.
- Discovery date
- 18 January 1975
- Named after
- David Kugultinov , (Soviet poet)
- Alternative designations
- 1975 BA 1 · 1941 FM, 1958 DF · 1975 CE, 1978 RM 1
- Minor planet category
~3 min read
Article
2296 Kugultinov, provisional designation 1975 BA1, is a carbonaceous Themistian asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on 18 January 1975, by Russian astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory on the Crimean peninsula in Nauchnyj, and named after Soviet poet David Nikitich Kugultinov.