File:Orbit_of_779_Nina.gif · 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
- G. Neujmin
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 25 January 1914
- Named after
- Nina Neujmina, (Discoverer's sister)
- Alternative designations
- A914 BH · A908 YB, A912 TE · 1914 UB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) background
- Observation arc
- 103.51 yr (37,806 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2707 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0571 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6639 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.35 yr (1,588 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 301.50 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 36.12 / day
- Inclination
- 14.582°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 283.74°
- Argument of perihelion
- 49.126°
- Dimensions
- 79.9 km × 79.9 km
- Mean diameter
- 76.62 ± 4.0 km 80.572 ± 2.220 km 81.27 ± 1.00 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 780 Armenia
- Follows
- 778 Theobalda
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 80.572
- Orbital period
- 1588.638732836612
- Image
- Orbit of 779 Nina.gif
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Grigory Neujmin
- site of astronomical discovery
- Simeiz Observatory
- provisional designation
- A914 BH
- time of discovery or invention
- 1914-01-25
- orbital inclination
- 14.57386354897152
- Commons category
- 779 Nina
- albedo
- 0.157
- rotation period
- 11.186
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 7.96
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.226277281516815
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.664512815333364
- periapsis
- 2.061594098913015
- apoapsis
- 3.267431531753713
- longitude of ascending node
- 283.6980767335843
- argument of periapsis
- 49.09893551847674
- mean anomaly
- 34.72398794148931
- time of periapsis
- 2460847.26702166
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
779 Nina (prov. designation: A914 BH or 1914 UB) is a large background asteroid, approximately 80 kilometers (50 miles) in diameter, located in the central region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 25 January 1914, by Russian astronomer Grigory Neujmin (1886–1946) at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The metallic X-type asteroid with an intermediate albedo has a rotation period of 11.2 hours. It was named after the discoverer's sister, Nina Neujmina (Tsentilovich) (1889–1971).
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “779 Nina” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.