File:32Pomona_(Lightcurve_Inversion).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
- H. Goldschmidt
- Discovery date
- 26 October 1854
- Pronunciation
- / p ə ˈ m oʊ n ə /
- Named after
- Pōmōna
- Alternative designations
- A899 QA; A911 KF;, 1945 RB; 1949 SH;, 1950 YD
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Pomonian / p ə ˈ m oʊ n i ə n /
- Aphelion
- 2.798 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.377 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.588 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.163 yr (1520.57 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 242.006°
- Inclination
- 5.521°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 220.357°
- Time of perihelion
- 2027-Apr-03
- Argument of perihelion
- 337.859°
- Jupiter moid
- 2.169 AU
- Dimensions
- 80.76 ± 1.6 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Pomona
- Followed by
- 33 Polyhymnia
- Follows
- 31 Euphrosyne
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 80.76
- Orbital period
- 1520.570361167049
- Image
- 32Pomona (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Hermann Goldschmidt
- provisional designation
- A854 UA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1854-10-26
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- site of astronomical discovery
- Paris Observatory, PSL University
- albedo
- 0.2564
- Commons category
- 32 Pomona
- rotation period
- 9.448
- absolute magnitude
- 7.76
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.08130669063369685
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.587847793956288
- periapsis
- 2.377438453965989
- apoapsis
- 2.798257133946587
- orbital inclination
- 5.520820473108212
- longitude of ascending node
- 220.3565220247258
- argument of periapsis
- 337.8586258050866
- mean anomaly
- 242.0056034092755
- time of periapsis
- 2461498.885506221
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
32 Pomona (/pəˈmoʊnə/ pə-MOH-nə;) is a stony main-belt asteroid that is 81 kilometres (50 mi) in diameter. It was discovered by German-French astronomer Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt on October 26, 1854, and is named after Pōmōna, the Roman goddess of fruit trees.
Photometric observations of this asteroid gave a light curve with a synodic rotation period of 9.448 hours. The data was used to construct a model for the asteroid, revealing it to be an angular object that is spinning about a pole with ecliptic coordinates (β, λ) = (+58°, 267°). The ratio of the major to minor axes' lengths is roughly equal to 1.3.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “32 Pomona” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.