File:396_Aeolia.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
- Auguste Charlois
- Discovery date
- 1 December 1894
- Pronunciation
- / iː ˈ oʊ l i ə /
- Named after
- Aeolis
- Alternative designations
- 1894 BL
- Minor planet category
- Main belt ( Aeolia clump )
- Observation arc
- 89.89 yr (32,831 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.17927 AU (475.612 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.30468 AU (344.775 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.74198 AU (410.194 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.54 yr (1,658.4 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 81.8407 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 1.466 / day
- Inclination
- 2.54990°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 249.930°
- Argument of perihelion
- 21.8317°
- Dimensions
- 34.09 ± 3.2 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 14.353 h (0.60 d)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Aeolis
- Followed by
- 397 Vienna
- Follows
- 395 Delia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 39.242
- Orbital period
- 1657.560560536063
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Auguste Charlois
- site of astronomical discovery
- Nice Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1950 CL
- time of discovery or invention
- 1894-12-01
- orbital inclination
- 2.549471130376821
- absolute magnitude
- 10.09
- albedo
- 0.126
- rotation period
- 14.353
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1591909391499818
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.741031239620203
- periapsis
- 2.304683902345624
- apoapsis
- 3.177378576894782
- longitude of ascending node
- 249.8604792112003
- argument of periapsis
- 21.15796212053674
- mean anomaly
- 100.8788727733628
- time of periapsis
- 2460536.0198863875
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
396 Aeolia is a typical main belt asteroid. It was discovered by the French astronomer Auguste Charlois on 1 December 1894 from Nice, and may have been named for the ancient land of Aeolis. The asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.74 AU with a period of 4.54 years and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.16. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 2.5° to the plane of the ecliptic. This is the largest member of the eponymously named Aeolia asteroid family, a small group of asteroids with similar orbits that have an estimated age of less than 100 million years.
Analysis of the asteroid light curve based on photometry data collected during 2016 show a rotation period of 14.353±0.001 h with a brightness variation of 0.36±0.02 in magnitude. This rules out a previous estimate of 22.2 hours. It is a metallic Xe type asteroid in the SMASS classification.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “396 Aeolia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.