File:000122-asteroid_shape_model_(122)_Gerda.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
- Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters
- Discovery date
- 31 July 1872
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ ɡ ɜːr d ə /
- Alternative designations
- A872 OA; 1948 TQ 1
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 143.71 yr (52491 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.32884 AU (497.987 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 3.11932 AU (466.644 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.22408 AU (482.316 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.79 yr (2114.5 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 16.59 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 163.616 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 12.911 / day
- Inclination
- 1.64006°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 178.139°
- Argument of perihelion
- 321.617°
- Earth moid
- 2.13107 AU (318.804 Gm)
- Jupiter moid
- 1.66324 AU (248.817 Gm)
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
122 Gerda is a fairly large outer main-belt asteroid that was discovered by German-American astronomer C. H. F. Peters on July 31, 1872. It was named after Gerðr, the wife of the god Freyr in Norse mythology.
This asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 3.22 AU with a low eccentricity of 0.03 and an orbital period of 5.79 years. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 1.64° to the plane of the ecliptic. This body is listed as a member of the Hecuba group of asteroids that orbit near the 2:1 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q137099” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.