File:000822-asteroid_shape_model_(822)_Lalage.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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 31 March 1916
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ l æ l ə dʒ iː /
- Named after
- unknown Lalage
- Alternative designations
- A916 GJ · 1943 EJ 1 , 1916 ZD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) background
- Observation arc
- 103.84 yr (37,929 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.6064 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9043 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2554 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.39 yr (1,237 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 342.25 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 27.6 / day
- Inclination
- 0.7172°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 210.11°
- Argument of perihelion
- 247.21°
- Mean diameter
- 8.243 ± 0.336 km 11.34 ± 0.28 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 823 Sisigambis
- Follows
- 821 Fanny
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 8.243
- Orbital period
- 1237.649452462955
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A916 GJ
- time of discovery or invention
- 1916-03-31
- orbital inclination
- 0.7187601735391529
- Commons category
- 822 Lalage
- albedo
- 0.349
- rotation period
- 3.345
- asteroid spectral type
- D-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 12.07
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1548070393168235
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.255967392494403
- periapsis
- 1.90672775966705
- apoapsis
- 2.605207025321756
- longitude of ascending node
- 210.0312015903217
- argument of periapsis
- 247.0559097690434
- mean anomaly
- 204.3628251906415
- time of periapsis
- 2461535.567400516
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
822 Lalage (prov. designation: A916 GJ or 1916 ZD) is a background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 31 March 1916, by astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The likely highly elongated asteroid with an unclear spectral type has a short rotation period of 3.3 hours and measures approximately 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) in diameter. Any reference to the origin of the asteroid's name is unknown.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “822 Lalage” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.