File:19_Fortuna_VLT_(2021),_deconvolved.pdf · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
19 Fortuna is a large asteroid located in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter. It was one of the earliest asteroids to be discovered and remains scientifically interesting as a well-studied member of a major population of rocky bodies in our solar system.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
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
Small body data
(19) Fortuna
- Orbit class
- Main-belt
- Semi-major axis
- 2.442 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.158
- Inclination
- 1.574 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 7.490 H
via Minor Planet Center
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Fortuna
- Followed by
- 20 Massalia
- Follows
- 18 Melpomene
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 200.0
- Mass
- 12.7
- Orbital period
- 1393.90713348928
- Image
- 19Fortuna-LB1-crab-mag11.jpg
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- John Russell Hind
- site of astronomical discovery
- Bishop Observatory
- provisional designation
- A902 UG
- time of discovery or invention
- 1852-08-22
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 1.573309765366557
- rotation period
- 7.4432
- albedo
- 0.037
- Commons category
- 19 Fortuna
- absolute magnitude
- 7.49
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1580361840279985
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.44206344364985
- periapsis
- 2.056129055861155
- apoapsis
- 2.827997831438545
- longitude of ascending node
- 211.0012066960718
- argument of periapsis
- 182.5153236092613
- mean anomaly
- 96.49967299106633
- time of periapsis
- 2460626.8567151064
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
19 Fortuna is one of the largest main-belt asteroids. It has a composition similar to 1 Ceres: a darkly colored surface that is heavily space-weathered with the composition of primitive organic compounds, including tholins.
Fortuna is 225 km in diameter and has one of the darkest known geometric albedos for an asteroid over 150 km in diameter. Its albedo has been measured at 0.028 and 0.037. The spectra of the asteroid displays evidence of aqueous alteration.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “19 Fortuna” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.