File:000112-asteroid_shape_model_(112)_Iphigenia.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Picture of the Day · NASA
Pathfinder on Mars
2026-07-04
On July 4th, 1997, using its own array of fireworks, a parachute, and a cocoon of airbags, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft bounced like a giant beach ball at least 15 times before it came to rest on the surface of Mars at 10:07 AM Pacific Daylight Time. After its then novel airbag-assisted landing sequence was completed, Pathfinder transmitted this color mosaic to mission operators on Earth. In the scene from another world, the Mars Sojourner robot rover is visible in the foreground, crouched on top of the unfolded Pathfinder. About the size of a large house cat, the six-wheeled, solar-powered Sojourner became the first successful Martian rover. Surrounding Pathfinder are deflated airbags and the rock-strewn terrain of the Ares Vallis floodplain. In the distance Martian hills appear against a dusty brownish sky. The Pathfinder lander was subsequently renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.
via NASA APOD
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters
- Discovery date
- 19 September 1870
- Pronunciation
- / ˌ ɪ f ɪ dʒ ɪ ˈ n aɪ ə /
- Named after
- Iphigenia
- Alternative designations
- A870 SA
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 145.57 yr (53169 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.7461 AU (410.81 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.12225 AU (317.484 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.43415 AU (364.144 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.80 yr (1387.1 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 19.01 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 169.984 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 34.308 / day
- Inclination
- 2.6029°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 323.538°
- Argument of perihelion
- 16.676°
- Earth moid
- 1.11284 AU (166.478 Gm)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 69.818
- Orbital period
- 1386.887183012991
Show 15 more facts
- time of discovery or invention
- 1870-09-19
- orbital inclination
- 2.597037723072243
- albedo
- 0.042
- Commons category
- 112 Iphigenia
- provisional designation
- A870 SA
- rotation period
- 31.466
- absolute magnitude
- 9.77
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1279160866280162
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.433857451713491
- periapsis
- 2.122527931079865
- apoapsis
- 2.745186972347117
- longitude of ascending node
- 323.3481439201604
- argument of periapsis
- 16.85584702601118
- mean anomaly
- 332.5071196648629
- time of periapsis
- 2461106.415342669
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
112 Iphigenia is a fairly large and exceedingly dark main-belt asteroid. It is classified as a C-type asteroid, and therefore probably has a primitive carbonaceous composition. It was discovered by German-American astronomer C. H. F. Peters on September 19, 1870, and named after Iphigenia, a princess sacrificed by her father in Greek mythology. The orbital elements for 112 Iphigenia were published by German astronomer Friedrich Tietjen in 1871.
This body is orbiting the Sun with a period of 3.80 years and an eccentricity of 0.13. The orbital plane is inclined by 2.6° to the plane of the ecliptic. 112 Iphigenia has a cross-section diameter of ~72 km. Photometric observations of this asteroid during 2007 at the Observatorio Astronómico de Mallorca were used to create a light curve plot, which was published in 2010. This showed a relatively long synodic rotation period of 31.385±0.006 hours (1.3 days) and a brightness variation of 0.30±0.02 magnitude during each cycle. These findings agree with independent results reported in 2008, which gave a period of 31.466±0.001 hours.