File:266_Aline_orbit_on_01_Jan_2009.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
- 17 May 1887
- Alternative designations
- A887 KA
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 124.91 yr (45623 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.24229 AU (485.040 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.36559 AU (353.887 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.80394 AU (419.463 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.70 yr (1715.0 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 17.79 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 53.2036 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 35.708 / day
- Inclination
- 13.3989°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 235.904°
- Argument of perihelion
- 150.489°
- Dimensions
- 109.09 ± 2.9 km , 107.95 ± 6.62 km
- Mass
- (4.15 ± 0.42) × 10 kg
- Mean density
- 6.29 ± 1.32 g/cm
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 109.494
- Orbital period
- 1716.793963071404
Show 15 more facts
- time of discovery or invention
- 1887-05-17
- orbital inclination
- 13.39965963483686
- Commons category
- 266 Aline
- provisional designation
- A887 KA
- albedo
- 0.027
- rotation period
- 13.018
- absolute magnitude
- 8.72
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1548463939524662
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.80594939129526
- periapsis
- 2.371458246440071
- apoapsis
- 3.240440536150448
- longitude of ascending node
- 235.80746321178
- argument of periapsis
- 152.2031312930337
- mean anomaly
- 44.42525649743886
- time of periapsis
- 2460788.6416328815
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
266 Aline is a fairly large main belt asteroid that was discovered by Johann Palisa on 17 May 1887 in Vienna and is thought to have been named after the daughter of astronomer Edmund Weiss. It is a dark C-type asteroid and is probably composed of primitive carbonaceous material. 266 Aline is orbiting close to a 5:2 mean motion resonance with Jupiter, which is located at 2.824 AU.
Photometric observations made in 2012 at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, produced a light curve with a period of 13.018 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.10 ± 0.01 in magnitude.