14 Irene

Also known as (14) Irene, Irene

main-belt asteroid

AI overview

14 Irene is an asteroid located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is notable as one of the larger main-belt asteroids and represents the type of rocky object that scientists study to understand the early formation and composition of our solar system.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

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

~4 min read

Encyclopedic overview

14 Irene (/aɪˈriːniː/) is a large main-belt asteroid, discovered by the English astronomer John Russell Hind on 20 May 1851. It is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.585 AU with a period of 4.16 yr and an eccentricity of 0.168. The orbital plane is tilted at an angle of 9.1° to the plane of the ecliptic.

Observations from 2007 indicate that the rotation pole of 14 Irene lies close to the plane of the ecliptic, indicating it has an obliquity close to 90°. The fairly flat Irenian lightcurves indicate somewhat spherical proportions. This is a stony S-type asteroid with a mean diameter of around 152 km. It is spinning with a rotation period of 15 hours.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “14 Irene” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.