File:97Klotho_(Lightcurve_Inversion).png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
97 Klotho
Also known as (97) Klotho, Klotho
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
- Ernst Wilhelm Tempel
- Discovery date
- 17 February 1868
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ k l oʊ θ oʊ /
- Named after
- Clotho
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
~1 min read
Article
97 Klotho is a fairly large main-belt asteroid. While it is a metallic M-type asteroid, its radar albedo is too low to allow a nickel-iron composition. Klotho is similar to 21 Lutetia and 22 Kalliope in that all three are M-types of unknown composition. Klotho was found by Ernst Tempel on February 17, 1868. It was his fifth and final asteroid discovery. It is named after Klotho or Clotho, one of the three Moirai, or Fates, in Greek mythology.
This object is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.67 AU with a moderate eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.25 and an orbital period of 4.37 years. Its orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 11.8° relative to the plane of the ecliptic. 13-cm radar observations of this asteroid from the Arecibo Observatory between 1980 and 1985 were used to produce a diameter estimate of 108 km.