File:000244-asteroid_shape_model_(244)_Sita.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
- Johann Palisa
- Discovery date
- 14 October 1884
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ s iː t ə /
- Named after
- Sita
- Alternative designations
- A884 TA, 1900 UA, 1957 KT, 1976 HY, 1979 FL 3
- Minor planet category
- main-belt
- Observation arc
- 130.93 yr (47824 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.47317 AU (369.981 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.87531 AU (280.542 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.17424 AU (325.262 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.21 yr (1,171.0 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 46.3767 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 18 26.737 / day
- Inclination
- 2.84423°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 208.982°
- Argument of perihelion
- 166.029°
- Mean diameter
- 10.95 ± 0.8 km , 11 km
- Mass
- ~2×10 (estimate)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Sita
- Followed by
- 245 Vera
- Follows
- 243 Ida
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 11.077
- Mass
- 2
- Orbital period
- 1171.078304675008
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Johann Palisa
- site of astronomical discovery
- Vienna Observatory
- provisional designation
- A884 TA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1884-10-14
- orbital inclination
- 2.846891691942384
- Commons category
- 244 Sita
- albedo
- 0.256
- rotation period
- 129.51
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 11.99
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1367639839589727
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.17432773518455
- periapsis
- 1.876958011688221
- apoapsis
- 2.471697458680879
- longitude of ascending node
- 208.9227404858966
- argument of periapsis
- 166.3478626589038
- mean anomaly
- 11.11582907248156
- time of periapsis
- 2460964.3402603744
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
244 Sita is a background asteroid from the inner region of the asteroid belt, approximately 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 14 October 1884 by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa in the Vienna Observatory and was named after wife of Rama, Sita.
This minor planet is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.17 AU with an eccentricity of 0.137 and an orbital period of 3.21 yr. The orbital plane is tilted at an angle of 2.84° to the plane of the ecliptic. It is spinning slowly, completing a rotation about its axis once every 129.056 ± 0.021 h (5.377 ± 0.001 d).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “244 Sita” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.