File:28_Bellona.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
- Robert Luther
- Discovery date
- 1 March 1854
- Pronunciation
- / b ɛ ˈ l oʊ n ə /
- Named after
- Bellona
- Alternative designations
- 1951 CC 2
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Bellonian / b ɛ ˈ l oʊ n i ə n /
- Symbol
- (historical)
- Aphelion
- 3.191 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.364 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.777 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.628 yr (1690.55 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 65.459°
- Inclination
- 9.432°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 144.151°
- Argument of perihelion
- 343.462°
- Jupiter moid
- 1.872 AU
- Dimensions
- 97 ± 11 km , 120.9 ± 3.4 km ( IRAS ) , 108.10 ± 11.49 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Bellona
- Followed by
- 29 Amphitrite
- Follows
- 27 Euterpe
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 120.9
- Orbital period
- 1690.553098426711
- Image
- 28Bell-LB1-mag12.jpg
Show 20 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Robert Luther
- site of astronomical discovery
- Düsseldorf-Bilk Observatory
- provisional designation
- A854 EA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1854-03-01
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- albedo
- 0.1763
- described by source
- Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
- Commons category
- 28 Bellona
- rotation period
- 15.706
- absolute magnitude
- 7.23
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1489864505127287
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.777283790611091
- periapsis
- 2.363506136581408
- apoapsis
- 3.191061444640773
- orbital inclination
- 9.423244062671758
- longitude of ascending node
- 144.1508746942907
- argument of periapsis
- 343.462459642205
- mean anomaly
- 65.45934828373403
- time of periapsis
- 2460693.104155383
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
28 Bellona is a large asteroid located in the main-belt. It was discovered by German astronomer Robert Luther on 1 March 1854, and named after Bellōna, the Roman goddess of war; the name was chosen to mark the beginning of the Crimean War. Its historical symbol was Bellona's whip and spear; it was encoded in Unicode 17.0 as U+1CECE ().
Bellona is a stony (S-type) asteroid with a cross-section size of around 100–120 km. 28 Bellona is orbiting the Sun with a period of 4.63 years.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “28 Bellona” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.