File:437_Rhodia.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
- 16 July 1898
- Pronunciation
- / r oʊ ˈ d aɪ ə /
- Named after
- Ῥόδεια Rhodeia
- Alternative designations
- 1898 DP
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 117.73 yr (43,001 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9793 AU (445.70 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.79242 AU (268.142 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.38586 AU (356.920 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.69 yr (1,346.1 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 355.267 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 16 2.82 / day
- Inclination
- 7.3442°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 263.22°
- Argument of perihelion
- 62.058°
- Dimensions
- 13.12 ± 0.7 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 56 h (2.3 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
437 Rhodia is a Main belt asteroid that was discovered by French astronomer Auguste Charlois on 16 July 1898 in Nice. It was named after one of the Oceanid nymphs of Greek mythology. This asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.39 AU with a period of 3.69 years and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.25. The orbital plane is tilted at an angle of 7.3° to the plane of the ecliptic. 437 Rhodia was originally a proposed fly-by target of interest for the Rosetta mission.
Analysis of the bimodal light curve generated using photometric data show a lengthy rotation period of 433.2 ± 0.5 hours (18.05 ± 0.02 days) with a brightness variation of 0.35±0.05 in magnitude. It also appears to be tumbling. 437 Rhodia is classified as an E-type asteroid with a diameter of approximately 13 km. This object has the highest albedo in the IRAS dataset, with a value of 0.70±0.08.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q153811” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.