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
Small body data
1059 Mussorgskia (1925 OA)
- Orbit class
- Main-belt Asteroid
- Diameter
- 25.227 km
- Albedo
- 0.174
- Rotation period
- 5.636 h
- Absolute magnitude
- 10.920 H
- Earth MOID
- 1.160 AU
Article
1059 Mussorgskia, provisional designation 1925 OA, is a background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 25 kilometers (16 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 19 July 1925, by Soviet astronomer Vladimir Albitsky at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The asteroid was named for Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. The X- or C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 5.636 hours.
Orbit and classification