File:250_Bettin.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
- 3 September 1885
- Pronunciation
- German: [ bɛˈtiːnaː ]
- Alternative designations
- A885 RA
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 130.62 yr (47710 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5657 AU (533.42 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.7325 AU (408.78 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.14906 AU (471.093 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.59 yr (2041.1 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 16.78 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 56.902 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 34.932 / day
- Inclination
- 12.819°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 23.862°
- Argument of perihelion
- 76.692°
- Dimensions
- 120.995 ± 2.212 km
- Mass
- (2.389 ± 1.157/0.547) × 10 kg
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 251 Sophia
- Follows
- 249 Ilse
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 120.995
- Orbital period
- 2033.611686941143
- Image
- 250Bettina (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 20 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Johann Palisa
- site of astronomical discovery
- Vienna Observatory
- time of discovery or invention
- 1885-09-03
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 12.82180825108195
- albedo
- 0.112
- described by source
- Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
- Commons category
- 250 Bettina
- provisional designation
- A885 RA
- rotation period
- 5.0545
- absolute magnitude
- 7.68
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1369714325442495
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.141326428556557
- periapsis
- 2.711054447548054
- apoapsis
- 3.571598409565059
- longitude of ascending node
- 23.78704900188103
- argument of periapsis
- 75.9806040685496
- mean anomaly
- 298.6072204425714
- time of periapsis
- 2461347.3029833385
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
250 Bettina is a large main belt asteroid that was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on September 3, 1885, in Vienna. It was named in honour of Baroness Bettina von Rothschild (née de Rothschild; 1858–1892), wife of Baron Albert von Rothschild who had bought the naming rights for £50. Based upon the spectrum, it is classified as an M-type asteroid.
In 1988, the asteroid was observed from the Collurania-Teramo Observatory, allowing a light curve to be produced that showed "an irregular behavior with a deeper minimum and a narrower maximum". The data showed a rotation period of 5.055 hours and a brightness variation of 0.17 ± 0.01 in magnitude. The ratio of the lengths of the major to minor axes for this asteroid were found to be 1.51 ± 0.03.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “250 Bettina” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.