File:56_Melete.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
- Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt
- Discovery date
- 9 September 1857
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ m ɛ l ɪ t iː /
- Named after
- Melete
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Meletean / m ɛ l ɪ ˈ t iː ə n /
- Aphelion
- 480.683 million km (3.213 AU )
- Perihelion
- 295.717 million km (1.977 AU)
- Semi major axis
- 388.200 million km (2.595 AU)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 1526.839 d (4.18 a )
- Mean anomaly
- 267.781°
- Inclination
- 8.072°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 193.478°
- Argument of perihelion
- 103.648°
- Dimensions
- 113.2 km
- Mass
- (4.61 ± 0.00) × 10 kg
- Mean density
- 6.00 ± 1.31 g/cm
- Synodic rotation period
- 18.1 hr
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Melete
- Followed by
- 57 Mnemosyne
- Follows
- 55 Pandora
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 121.333
- Orbital period
- 1528.5880093769
- Image
- 56Melete (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Hermann Goldschmidt
- provisional designation
- A857 RB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1857-09-09
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 8.081030539648797
- site of astronomical discovery
- Paris Observatory, PSL University
- albedo
- 0.057
- Commons category
- 56 Melete
- rotation period
- 18.147
- absolute magnitude
- 8.53
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2368788004275838
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.596936603723498
- periapsis
- 1.981777376246992
- apoapsis
- 3.212095831200003
- longitude of ascending node
- 192.9318015731489
- argument of periapsis
- 104.9160212561472
- mean anomaly
- 92.04587147948092
- time of periapsis
- 2460609.666068177
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
56 Melete is a large and dark main-belt asteroid. It is a rather unusual P-type asteroid, probably composed of organic-rich silicates, carbon and anhydrous silicates, with possible internal water ice. The asteroid orbits the Sun with a period of 4.18 years.
Melete was discovered by Hermann Goldschmidt from his balcony in Paris, on 9 September 1857. Its orbit was computed by E. Schubert, who named it after Melete, the Muse of meditation in Greek mythology. It was originally confused for 41 Daphne before it was confirmed not to be by its second sighting on 27 August 1871. In 1861, the brightness of 56 Melete was shown to vary by German astronomer Friedrich Tietjen.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “56 Melete” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.