File:000136-asteroid_shape_model_(136)_Austria.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
- Johann Palisa
- Discovery site
- Austrian Naval Obs.
- Discovery date
- 18 March 1874
- Named after
- Austria
- Alternative designations
- A874 FA · 1950 HT
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , background
- Observation arc
- 141.11 yr (51,539 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.4812 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0927 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2869 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.46 yr (1,263 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 102.82 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 6 / day
- Inclination
- 9.5788°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 186.46°
- Time of perihelion
- 2024-Feb-24
- Argument of perihelion
- 132.95°
- Mean diameter
- 40.14 ± 1.0 km , 40.14 km
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
136 Austria is a main-belt asteroid that was found by the prolific asteroid discoverer Johann Palisa on 18 March 1874, from the Austrian Naval Observatory in Pola, Istria. It was his first asteroid discovery and was given the Latin name of his homeland. This object is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.29 AU with an eccentricity of 0.08 and an orbital period of 3.46 years. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 9.6° to the plane of the ecliptic.
The cross-sectional diameter of this asteroid is 40.14 km. Based upon its spectrum, it is classified as a metallic M-type spectrum, although Clark et al. (1994) suggest it may be more like a stony S-type asteroid. It shows almost no absorption features in the near infrared, which may indicate an iron or enstatite chondrite surface composition. A weak hydration feature was detected in 2006.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “136 Austria” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.