File:000159-asteroid_shape_model_(159)_Aemilia.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
- P. P. Henry
- Discovery date
- 26 January 1876
- Pronunciation
- / ɪ ˈ m ɪ l i ə /
- Named after
- Via Aemilia
- Alternative designations
- A876 BA; 1959 EG 1
- Minor planet category
- Main belt ( Hygiea family )
- Adjectives
- Aemilian / ɪ ˈ m ɪ l i ə n /
- Observation arc
- 112.24 yr (40996 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.4377 AU (514.27 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.76896 AU (414.231 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.1033 AU (464.25 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.47 yr (1996.8 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 16.86 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 214.036 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 49.008 / day
- Inclination
- 6.1308°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 134.132°
- Argument of perihelion
- 333.387°
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Via Aemilia
- Followed by
- 160 Una
- Follows
- 158 Koronis
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 125.236
- Mass
- 1.4
- Orbital period
- 2001.339205375071
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Paul-Pierre Henry
- provisional designation
- A876 BA
- site of astronomical discovery
- Paris Observatory, PSL University
- time of discovery or invention
- 1876-01-26
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 6.11433792106
- albedo
- 0.064
- Commons category
- 159 Aemilia
- rotation period
- 24.476
- absolute magnitude
- 8.28
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.09936686676237655
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.108003630860027
- periapsis
- 2.799171048175376
- apoapsis
- 3.416836213544677
- longitude of ascending node
- 133.8561111528797
- argument of periapsis
- 333.7033519760769
- mean anomaly
- 105.8964559935883
- time of periapsis
- 2460411.792419194
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
159 Aemilia is a large main-belt asteroid. Aemilia was discovered by the French brothers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry on January 26, 1876. The credit for this discovery was given to Paul. It is probably named after the Via Aemilia, a Roman road in Italy that runs from Piacenza to Rimini.
This slowly rotating, dark asteroid has a primitive carbonaceous composition, based upon its classification as a C-type asteroid. Photometric observations made in 2006 gave a rotation period of about 25 hours. Subsequent observations made at the Oakley Observatory in Terre Haute, Indiana found a light curve period of 16.37 ± 0.02 hours, with variation in brightness of 0.24 ± 0.04 in magnitude.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q141165” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.