File:145_Adeona_VLT_(2021),_deconvolved.pdf · 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
- 3 June 1875
- Pronunciation
- / æ d iː ˈ oʊ n ə /
- Named after
- Adeōna
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Adeona
- Adjectives
- Adeonian
- Observation arc
- 130.60 yr (47700 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.05972 AU (457.728 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.28737 AU (342.186 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.67354 AU (399.956 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.37 yr (1596.7 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 233.709 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 31.663 / day
- Inclination
- 12.6337°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 77.4206°
- Argument of perihelion
- 44.0233°
- Mean diameter
- 144 ± 3 km , 127.783 ± 0.355 km , 149.5 ± 5.5 km
- Mass
- (2.4 ± 0.3) × 10 kg , (2.08 ± 0.57) × 10 kg
via Wikipedia infobox
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
145 Adeona is a large asteroid from the intermediate asteroid belt, approximately 150 kilometers (93 miles) in diameter. Its surface is very dark, and, based upon its classification as a C-type asteroid, is probably composed of primitive carbonaceous material. The spectra of the asteroid displays evidence of aqueous alteration. The Adeona family of asteroids is named after it.
It was discovered by C. H. F. Peters on June 3, 1875, from the observatory at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. Peters named it after Adeona, the Roman goddess of homecoming, because he had recently returned from a journey across the world to observe the transit of Venus. Peters also discovered 144 Vibilia on the same night.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “145 Adeona” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.