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File:Rosetta_triumphs_at_asteroid_Lutetia.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ107556· pop 59· linked from 56 articles

Q107556

Also known as (21) Lutetia, Lutetia

main-belt asteroid

AI overview

Q107556 is an asteroid that orbits in the main belt, the region between Mars and Jupiter where most of the solar system's asteroids are found. Like other main-belt asteroids, it helps scientists understand the composition and history of the early solar system.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

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

Wikidata facts

Diameter: 98.0
Orbital period: 1387.029266567355
Image: Rosetta triumphs at asteroid Lutetia.jpg

Show 16 more facts

Commons category: 21 Lutetia
time of discovery or invention: 1852-11-15
orbital inclination: 3.06456868453339
albedo: 0.19
provisional designation: A852 VA
rotation period: 8.1655
absolute magnitude: 7.49
density: 3.4
orbital eccentricity: 0.1647832771539116
semi-major axis of an orbit: 2.434023677785547
periapsis: 2.032937279489828
apoapsis: 2.835110076081266
longitude of ascending node: 80.83711065652862
argument of periapsis: 249.9398469083444
mean anomaly: 246.8100688518468
time of periapsis: 2461436.604853287

Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~10 min read

Article

21 Lutetia is a large M-type asteroid in the main asteroid belt. It measures about 100 kilometers in diameter (120 km along its major axis). It was discovered in 1852 by Hermann Goldschmidt, and is named after Lutetia, the Latin name of the city of Paris.

Lutetia has an irregular shape and is heavily cratered, with the largest impact crater reaching 45 km in diameter. The surface is geologically heterogeneous and is intersected by a system of grooves and scarps, which are thought to be fractures. It has a high overall bulk density, suggesting that it is made of metal-rich rock.