File:73Klytia_(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
- Horace Parnell Tuttle
- Discovery date
- April 7, 1862
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ k l ɪ ʃ i ə /
- Named after
- Κλυτία Klytiā
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Klytian
- Aphelion
- 415.302 million km (2.776 AU)
- Perihelion
- 382.115 million km (2.554 AU)
- Semi major axis
- 398.708 million km (2.665 AU )
- Orbital period sidereal
- 1589.253 d (4.35 a )
- Mean anomaly
- 214.253°
- Inclination
- 2.373°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 7.213°
- Argument of perihelion
- 54.982°
- Dimensions
- 44.4 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.283065 h
- Spectral type
- S
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Clytie
- Followed by
- 74 Galatea
- Follows
- 72 Feronia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 44.59
- Orbital period
- 1588.035273703278
- Image
- 73Klytia (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Horace Parnell Tuttle
- site of astronomical discovery
- Harvard College Observatory
- provisional designation
- A862 GA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1862-04-07
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 2.369661736607308
- albedo
- 0.223
- Commons category
- 73 Klytia
- rotation period
- 8.297
- absolute magnitude
- 9.06
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.04228735546791477
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.663838012696466
- periapsis
- 2.551191347744627
- apoapsis
- 2.776484677648305
- longitude of ascending node
- 6.829676765111881
- argument of periapsis
- 56.77232532127435
- mean anomaly
- 336.1178968455729
- time of periapsis
- 2461105.8489506096
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
73 Klytia is a main-belt asteroid. It was the second and last asteroid discovery by the prolific comet discoverer Horace Tuttle, on April 7, 1862. It is named after Clytia, who loved Helios in Greek mythology. Of the first one hundred numbered asteroids, Klytia is the smallest.
Based upon photometry observations between 1984 and 2007, it has a sidereal rotation period of 8.283065 h with an amplitude that can range up to 0.34±0.01 in magnitude. The lightcurve shows some shape irregularities. There are two valid solutions for the pole's ecliptic coordinates: (λ1, β1) = (38°, +75°) and (λ2, β2) = (237°, +73°).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “73 Klytia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.