File:000164-asteroid_shape_model_(164)_Eva.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
- P. P. Henry
- Discovery site
- Paris
- Discovery date
- 12 July 1876
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ iː v ə /
- Named after
- Unknown
- Alternative designations
- A876 NA
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 118.93 yr (43438 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5444 AU (530.23 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.7188 AU (257.13 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.6338 AU (394.01 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.27 yr (1561.2 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 219.5472 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 50.128 / day
- Inclination
- 24.4564°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 76.8519°
- Argument of perihelion
- 283.9561°
- Earth moid
- 0.882286 AU (131.9881 Gm)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 100.254
- Orbital period
- 1560.264007572774
Show 15 more facts
- time of discovery or invention
- 1876-07-12
- albedo
- 0.029
- Commons category
- 164 Eva
- provisional designation
- A876 NA
- rotation period
- 13.66
- absolute magnitude
- 8.77
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.3463141795228302
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.632690313754824
- periapsis
- 1.720952327809119
- apoapsis
- 3.544428299700528
- orbital inclination
- 24.47469516530181
- longitude of ascending node
- 76.78063759177425
- argument of periapsis
- 284.0197988785376
- mean anomaly
- 284.4444908968526
- time of periapsis
- 2461327.9626150765
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Article
164 Eva is a main-belt asteroid that was discovered by the French brothers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry on July 12, 1876, in Paris. The reason the name Eva was chosen remains unknown, though Karl Ludwig Littrow suspected a "worldly origin" ("Mit dem Namen könnten wir wie bei Miriam wieder den biblischen Boden zu betreten glauben, wenn wir bei diesem Entdecker nicht an Taufen weltlichen Ursprungs gewöhnt wären"). The orbital elements for 164 Eva were published in 1877 by American astronomer Winslow Upton.
This asteroid is categorized as a C-type asteroid and is probably composed of primitive carbonaceous chondritic materials. Dust activity due to sublimation has been detected on this asteroid, suggesting the presence of water ice in its interior.