148 Gallia

Also known as (148) Gallia, Gallia

main-belt asteroid

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: P. M. Henry
Discovery site: Paris
Discovery date: 7 August 1875
Pronunciation: / ˈ ɡ æ l i ə /
Named after: Gaul , (Latin name for France )
Alternative designations: A875 PA
Minor planet category: main-belt · ( middle ) , Gallia
Observation arc: 138.37 yr (50,540 d)
Aphelion: 3.2885 AU
Perihelion: 2.2531 AU
Semi major axis: 2.7708 AU
Orbital period sidereal: 4.61 yr (1,685 d)
Mean anomaly: 278.58 °
Mean motion: 0° 12 49.32 / day
Inclination: 25.291°
Longitude of ascending node: 145.01°
Argument of perihelion: 252.79°
Mean diameter: 80.87 ± 1.04 km , 83.45 ± 5.07 km , 85.91 ± 23.39 km , 97.75 ± 3.7 km , 98.09 km (derived)

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter: 97.75
Orbital period: 1683.981079599828

Show 15 more facts

time of discovery or invention: 1875-08-07
albedo: 0.164
Commons category: 148 Gallia
provisional designation: A875 PA
rotation period: 20.664
absolute magnitude: 7.58
orbital eccentricity: 0.1879084849234235
semi-major axis of an orbit: 2.770081332096837
periapsis: 2.249559545867862
apoapsis: 3.290603118325812
orbital inclination: 25.2896738778118
longitude of ascending node: 144.9534753902086
argument of periapsis: 252.4105371298604
mean anomaly: 157.4104787099669
time of periapsis: 2460264.177033671

Sources (2)

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Article

148 Gallia is an asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 90 kilometers (56 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 7 August 1875, by the French brothers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry at the Paris, but the credit for this discovery was given to Prosper. It was named after the Latin name for the country of France, Gaul. Based upon its spectrum, it is an unusual G-type asteroid (GU) and a stony S-type asteroid in the Tholen and SMASS classification, respectively.

Photometric observations of this asteroid at the European Southern Observatory in 1977–78 gave a light curve with a period of 0.86098 ± 0.00030 days (20.6635 ± 0.0072 h) and a brightness variation of 0.32 in magnitude. A 2007 study at the Palmer Divide Observatory in Colorado, United States, yielded a period of 20.666 ± 0.002 hours with a magnitude variation of 0.21.