File:434_Hungaria.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
434 Hungaria
Sign in to saveAlso known as (434) Hungaria, Hungaria
relatively small inner main-belt asteroid
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
- Max Wolf
- Discovery date
- 11 September 1898
- Pronunciation
- / h ʌ ŋ ˈ ɡ ɛər i ə /
- Named after
- Hungary
- Alternative designations
- 1898 DR
- Minor planet category
- Asteroid belt ( Hungaria )
- Observation arc
- 117.58 yr (42946 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.0878 AU (312.33 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.8011 AU (269.44 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 1.9444 AU (290.88 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 2.71 yr (990.34 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 221.145 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 21 48.636 / day
- Inclination
- 22.511°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 175.332°
- Argument of perihelion
- 123.80°
- Dimensions
- ~11 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 26.521 h (1.1050 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Hungary
- Followed by
- 435 Ella
- Follows
- Q16711
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- 8.934
- Orbital period
- 990.2491781330745
Show 20 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1898 DR
- time of discovery or invention
- 1898-09-11
- asteroid family
- Hungaria family
- orbital inclination
- 22.50583714674718
- albedo
- 0.726
- Commons category
- 434 Hungaria
- rotation period
- 26.521
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 11.21
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.07393828109133724
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 1.944303430811211
- periapsis
- 1.800544977217041
- apoapsis
- 2.088061884405382
- longitude of ascending node
- 175.2721702086849
- argument of periapsis
- 123.9071769585884
- mean anomaly
- 17.12964190100637
- time of periapsis
- 2460953.381628294
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
434 Hungaria is a relatively small asteroid orbiting in the inner asteroid belt. It is an E-type (high-albedo) asteroid. It is the namesake of the Hungaria asteroids, which orbit the Sun on the inside of the 1:4 Kirkwood gap, standing out of the core of the asteroid belt.
It was discovered by Max Wolf on 11 September 1898 at the University of Heidelberg. It was named after Hungary, which hosted an astronomical meeting in 1898 in Budapest.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “434 Hungaria” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.