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
Near-Earth object1980 Tezcatlipoca (1950 LA)
- Orbit class
- Amor
- Diameter
- 4.300 km
- Albedo
- 0.250
- Rotation period
- 7.246 h
- Absolute magnitude
- 13.800 H
Article
1980 Tezcatlipoca, provisional designation 1950 LA, is an eccentric, stony asteroid and near-Earth object of the Amor group, approximately 6 kilometers (4 mi) in diameter.
It was discovered on 19 June 1950, by American astronomer Albert Wilson and Swedish astronomer Åke Wallenquist at the U.S. Palomar Observatory in California. It was named after the Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca.