File:135_Hertha.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
- C. H. F. Peters
- Discovery site
- Litchfield Obs.
- Discovery date
- 18 February 1874
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ h ɜːr θ ə /
- Named after
- Nerthus , (Norse mythology)
- Alternative designations
- A874 DA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Nysa (Hertha)
- Observation arc
- 133.34 yr (48,701 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9320 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9239 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4279 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.78 yr (1,382 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 233.89 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 37.8 / day
- Inclination
- 2.3052°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 343.65°
- Argument of perihelion
- 340.16°
- Mean diameter
- 76.12 ± 3.29 km , 79.24 ± 2.0 km
via Wikipedia infobox
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
135 Hertha is an asteroid from the inner region of the asteroid belt, approximately 77 kilometers (48 miles) in diameter. Discovered on 18 February 1874 by German–American astronomer Christian Peters at the Litchfield Observatory near Clinton, New York, it was named after the Teutonic and Scandinavian goddess of fertility, Hertha, also known as Nerthus. It orbits among the Nysa asteroid family, but its classification as a metallic M-type asteroid does not match the more common F-type asteroid for this family, suggesting that it may be an interloper. Spectroscopic analysis indicates the possible presence of hydrated silicates indicating that Hertha should possibly be reclassified from its present M-type to the proposed W-type.
Lightcurve data from Hertha indicates a flattened body, and radar observations indicate that Hertha is non-metallic. Five occultations of stars by the asteroid have been observed between 2000 and 2015.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “135 Hertha” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.