In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 7 inbound references to Q148872, and connects out to list of minor planets: 2001–3000, asteroid belt and Minor Planet Center.
It is catalogued under topics including Astronomical objects discovered in 1957, Discoveries by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth and Minor planet object articles (numbered).
Vinony links it to 33 Wikipedia language editions.
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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 9 January 1957
- Named after
- Kōichirō Tomita , (Japanese astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1957 AA · 1929 VX, 1938 BF · 1942 DF, 1957 BA · 1977 KM, 1978 PA 4 · 1980 DC 6
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Nysa
- Observation arc
- 87.07 yr (31,804 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.7676 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1141 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4408 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.81 yr (1,393 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 345.07 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 30.6 / day
- Inclination
- 3.0111°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 163.32°
- Argument of perihelion
- 282.65°
- Dimensions
- 9.17 km (calculated) , 15.07 ± 4.33 km , 15.20 ± 3.74 km , 16.62 ± 0.23 km , 17.941 ± 0.129 , 19.412 ± 0.175 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 7.9533 ± 0.0005 h , 8.435 ± 0.079 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 17.941
- Orbital period
- 1392.525402700952
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1980 DC6
- time of discovery or invention
- 1957-01-09
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1347819837075503
- orbital inclination
- 3.014658375345115
- periapsis
- 2.111520750856855
- apoapsis
- 2.769377961597016
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.440449356226935
- mean anomaly
- 39.63902062465372
- longitude of ascending node
- 163.1300047748175
- argument of periapsis
- 283.5700766875511
- absolute magnitude
- 12.82
- albedo
- 0.07
- rotation period
- 7.9533
- time of periapsis
- 2460847.1712690056
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2391 Tomita, provisional designation 1957 AA, is a Nysian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 15 kilometers in diameter. The asteroid was discovered on 9 January 1957, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany. It was named after Japanese astronomer Kōichirō Tomita.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q148872” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.