File:232_Russia.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
- Johann Palisa
- Discovery date
- 31 January 1883
- Named after
- Russia
- Alternative designations
- A883 BA, 1921 UA, 1929 QA, 1954 SV, 1970 SN 1
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 102.35 yr (37382 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9986 AU (448.58 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.1069 AU (315.19 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.5527 AU (381.88 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.08 yr (1489.7 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 18.65 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 213.685 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 29.976 / day
- Inclination
- 6.0659°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 152.250°
- Argument of perihelion
- 52.163°
- Dimensions
- 53.28 ± 1.1 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 21.905 h (0.9127 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Russia
- Followed by
- 233 Asterope
- Follows
- 231 Vindobona
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 54.73
- Orbital period
- 1491.455988807415
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Johann Palisa
- site of astronomical discovery
- Vienna Observatory
- provisional designation
- A883 BA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1883-01-31
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 6.066110817109418
- albedo
- 0.031
- rotation period
- 21.905
- Commons category
- 232 Russia
- absolute magnitude
- 10.59
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1715243168915451
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.554708445121826
- periapsis
- 2.116513824215243
- apoapsis
- 2.992903066028409
- longitude of ascending node
- 152.0163069773194
- argument of periapsis
- 52.25348456812943
- mean anomaly
- 315.1816090035463
- time of periapsis
- 2461186.1796046123
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
232 Russia is a large Main belt asteroid. It is classified as a C-type asteroid and is probably composed of primitive carbonaceous material. It was discovered by Johann Palisa on 31 January 1883 in Vienna, who named it after the country of Russia.
Photometric observations of this asteroid collected during 2007 show a rotation period of 21.8 ± 0.2 hours with a brightness variation of 0.2 ± 0.02 magnitude. A follow-up study during 2014 discovered that the rotation period varied depending on the phase angle of observation. The measured rotation varied from 22.016 ± 0.004 hours at a phase angle of 21.5 degrees to 17.0, to 21.904 ± 0.002 hours at phase angles between 5.2 degrees and 9.6 degrees. The reason for this variation has to do with the shape of the asteroid.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q148685” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.