File:196Philomela_(Lightcurve_Inversion).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
- C. H. F. Peters , 1879
- Discovery date
- 14 May 1879
- Pronunciation
- / f ɪ l oʊ ˈ m iː l ə /
- Alternative designations
- A879 JA; 1934 JO
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Philomelian / f ɪ l oʊ ˈ m iː l i ə n /
- Observation arc
- 136.91 yr (50005 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1723 AU (474.57 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 3.0630 AU (458.22 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.1177 AU (466.40 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.50 yr (2010.7 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 276.49 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 44.544 / day
- Inclination
- 7.2554°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 72.384°
- Argument of perihelion
- 195.69°
- Earth moid
- 2.04771 AU (306.333 Gm)
- Jupiter moid
- 1.83421 AU (274.394 Gm)
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
196 Philomela is a large and bright main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by C. H. F. Peters on May 14, 1879, in Clinton, New York. The asteroid is named after Philomela, the woman who became a nightingale in Greek mythology.
This object is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 3.12 AU with a low eccentricity of 0.018 and an orbital period of 5.50 years. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 7.26° to the plane of the ecliptic. This is a stony S-type asteroid with a diameter of approximately 145 km. It is spinning with a rotation period of 8.334 hours.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “196 Philomela” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.