In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 9 inbound references to 894 Erda, and connects out to asteroid family, Paul Herget and asteroid belt.
It sits within the topics Astronomical objects discovered in 1918, Background asteroids and Discoveries by Max Wolf.
Vinony links it to 40 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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 4 June 1918
- Named after
- Erda, goddess in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen , ( Norse mythology )
- Alternative designations
- A918 LA · 1973 QB, A907 JC · 1907 JC, A912 HD · 1912 HD, 1918 DT
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 112.73 yr (41,173 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.4642 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7752 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1197 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.51 yr (2,013 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 150.20 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 44.04 / day
- Inclination
- 12.733°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 190.61°
- Argument of perihelion
- 116.33°
- Mean diameter
- 28.309 ± 1.544 km 36.54 ± 1.8 km 37.84 ± 0.45 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 4.6897 ± 0.0003 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Jörð
- Followed by
- 895 Helio
- Follows
- 893 Leopoldina
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 28.309
- Orbital period
- 2017.70729451835
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A918 LA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1918-06-04
- orbital inclination
- 12.71654688347771
- albedo
- 0.12
- rotation period
- 4.6897
- absolute magnitude
- 9.75
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1099122992354652
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.12492662847078
- periapsis
- 2.781458757793426
- apoapsis
- 3.468394499148134
- longitude of ascending node
- 190.3792587938353
- argument of periapsis
- 118.601807731053
- mean anomaly
- 145.8797635140313
- time of periapsis
- 2460182.8814917644
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
894 Erda (prov. designation: A918 LA or 1918 DT) is a bright background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 4 June 1918, by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory. The X-type asteroid has a short rotation period of 4.7 hours and measures approximately 37 kilometers (23 miles) in diameter. It was likely named after a character in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, "Erda", who is the goddess of wisdom, fate and Earth, borrowed from the Norse sagas, and referring to both Urðr and Jörð in Norse mythology.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “894 Erda” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.