File:127Johanna_(Lightcurve_Inversion).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
Small body data
(127) Johanna
- Orbit class
- Main-belt
- Semi-major axis
- 2.756 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.063
- Inclination
- 8.237 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 8.540 H
via Minor Planet Center
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Paul Henry and Prosper Henry
- Discovery date
- 5 November 1872
- Pronunciation
- / dʒ oʊ ˈ h æ n ə /
- Named after
- Joan of Arc
- Alternative designations
- A872 VB
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 98.53 yr (35989 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.94 AU (439.95 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.57 AU (384.67 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.76 AU (412.31 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.58 yr (1,671.3 d)
- Average orbital speed
- 17.92 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 67.782 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 55.44 / day
- Inclination
- 8.2449°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 31.154°
- Argument of perihelion
- 94.611°
- Earth moid
- 1.60 AU (239.57 Gm)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Joan of Arc
- Followed by
- 128 Nemesis
- Follows
- 126 Velleda
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 122.0
- Orbital period
- 1671.029827808864
- Image
- 127Johanna (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Prosper-Mathieu Henry
- site of astronomical discovery
- Paris Observatory, PSL University
- time of discovery or invention
- 1872-11-05
- orbital inclination
- 8.238027463331475
- Commons category
- 127 Johanna
- provisional designation
- A872 VB
- albedo
- 0.042
- rotation period
- 12.7988
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 8.55
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.06332872723124304
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.755860204417546
- periapsis
- 2.58133508524455
- apoapsis
- 2.930385323590543
- longitude of ascending node
- 31.09739888849933
- argument of periapsis
- 92.67557474471108
- mean anomaly
- 82.28506912436238
- time of periapsis
- 2460618.55331975
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
127 Johanna is a large, dark main-belt asteroid that was discovered by French astronomers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry on 5 November 1872, and is believed to be named after Joan of Arc. It is classified as a CX-type asteroid, indicating the spectrum shows properties of both a carbonaceous C-type asteroid and a metallic X-type asteroid.
A photoelectric study was performed of this minor planet in 1991 at the Konkoly Observatory in Hungary. The resulting light curve showed a synodic rotation period of 6.94 ± 0.29 hours with a brightness variation of 0.2 in magnitude. It was estimated to have an absolute magnitude of 8.459 ± 0.013 with a diameter of 96–118 km (60–73 mi) and an albedo of 0.06–0.04.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “127 Johanna” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.