File:Asteroid-maria.jpg · 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
- J. Perrotin
- Discovery date
- 10 January 1877
- Pronunciation
- / m ə ˈ r iː ə / mə- REE -ə
- Alternative designations
- A877 AA; 1958 AC
- Minor planet category
- Main belt ( Maria )
- Observation arc
- 116.69 yr (42622 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.7161 AU (406.32 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.3923 AU (357.88 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.5542 AU (382.10 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.08 yr (1491.0 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 88.062 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 29.184 / day
- Inclination
- 14.377°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 301.34°
- Argument of perihelion
- 159.21°
- Earth moid
- 1.4114 AU (211.14 Gm)
- Jupiter moid
- 2.39948 AU (358.957 Gm)
- Dimensions
- 44.30 ± 1.0 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 33.136
- Orbital period
- 1491.328232041943
- Image
- Asteroid-maria.jpg
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- A877 AA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1877-01-10
- albedo
- 0.282
- Commons category
- 170 Maria
- rotation period
- 13.12
- absolute magnitude
- 9.33
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.06137589180808733
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.554562553702127
- periapsis
- 2.397773998789114
- apoapsis
- 2.711351108615141
- orbital inclination
- 14.36223255835443
- longitude of ascending node
- 301.1804135957114
- argument of periapsis
- 158.8135884718255
- mean anomaly
- 189.6633069197703
- time of periapsis
- 2461706.133109287
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Article
170 Maria is a Main belt asteroid that was discovered by French astronomer Henri Joseph Perrotin on January 10, 1877. Its orbit was computed by Antonio Abetti, and the asteroid was named after his sister, Maria. This is the namesake of the Maria asteroid family; one of the first asteroid families to be identified by Japanese astronomer Kiyotsugu Hirayama in 1918. This family may be the parent body of the large near-Earth objects 433 Eros and 1036 Ganymed.
This object is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.55 AU with a low eccentricity of 0.063 and an orbital period of 4.08 years. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 14.4° to the plane of the ecliptic. The diameter of this body has been measured as 44.3 km.