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In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 14 inbound references to 1866 Sisyphus, and connects out to Apollo asteroid, Minor Planet Center and asteroid spectral type.
It sits within the topics Apollo asteroids, Astronomical objects discovered in 1972 and Binary asteroids.
Vinony links it to 40 Wikipedia language editions.
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. Wild
- Discovery site
- Zimmerwald Obs.
- Discovery date
- 5 December 1972
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ s ɪ s ɪ f ə s /
- Named after
- Σίσυφος Sīsyphos ( Greek mythology )
- Alternative designations
- 1972 XA
- Minor planet category
- Apollo NEO Mars-crosser
- Adjectives
- Sysiphean / s ɪ s ɪ ˈ f iː ən / , Sisyphian / s ɪ ˈ s ɪ f i ə n /
- Observation arc
- 61.55 yr (22,482 days)
- Earliest precovery date
- 26 January 1955
- Aphelion
- 2.913 AU (435.8 Gm)
- Perihelion
- 0.8747312 AU (130.85792 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 1.8936992 AU (283.29337 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 2.61 yr (952 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 85.918 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 22 41.88 / day
- Inclination
- 41.202°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 63.498°
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- near-Earth object
- Named after
- Sisyphus
- Followed by
- 1867 Deiphobus
- Follows
- 1865 Cerberus
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 8.48
- Orbital period
- 951.5953964514977
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Paul Wild
- site of astronomical discovery
- Zimmerwald Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1972 XA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1972-12-05
- orbital inclination
- 41.20631191690396
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.5381206723626517
- albedo
- 0.15
- periapsis
- 0.8745093595637307
- apoapsis
- 2.912234524546039
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 1.893371942054885
- mean anomaly
- 140.6642409667508
- longitude of ascending node
- 63.44668494157183
- argument of periapsis
- 293.0986339030717
- absolute magnitude
- 12.48
- Commons category
- 1866 Sisyphus
- rotation period
- 2.4
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460628.6793218073
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1866 Sisyphus /ˈsɪsɪfəs/ is a binary stony asteroid, near-Earth object and the largest member of the Apollo group, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on 5 December 1972, by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild at Zimmerwald Observatory near Bern, Switzerland, and given the provisional designation 1972 XA. It was named after Sisyphus from Greek mythology.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1866 Sisyphus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.