File:000217-asteroid_shape_model_(217)_Eudora.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
- J. Coggia
- Discovery date
- 30 August 1880
- Pronunciation
- / j uː ˈ d ɔːr ə /
- Named after
- Eudora
- Alternative designations
- A880 QA, 1914 RA
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 130.48 yr (47657 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.75541 AU (561.801 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.98080 AU (296.323 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.86811 AU (429.063 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.86 yr (1774.2 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 17.57 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 349.290 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 10.49 / day
- Inclination
- 10.5165°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 162.594°
- Argument of perihelion
- 155.320°
- Dimensions
- 66.24 ± 2.3 km , 68.62 ± 1.41 km
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
217 Eudora is a large Main belt asteroid. It was discovered by French (Corsican) astronomer Jérôme Eugène Coggia on August 30, 1880, in Marseille, France. It was his fourth asteroid discovery and is probably named after Eudora, one of the Hyades in Greek mythology.
It probably has a composition similar to carbonaceous chondrites. In 2007, a study showed it rotates every 25.253 ± 0.003 hours, based on lightcurve data. A light curve generated from photometric observations at Pulkovo Observatory, give a matching rotation period of 25.253 ± 0.002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.22 ± 0.04 in magnitude.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “217 Eudora” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.