File:000900-asteroid_shape_model_(900)_Rosalinde.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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 10 August 1918
- Named after
- Character "Rosalinde" in the operetta Die Fledermaus (by Johann Strauss II )
- Alternative designations
- A918 PJ · 1918 EC
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , background
- Observation arc
- 101.46 yr (37,057 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.8758 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0705 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4732 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.89 yr (1,421 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 73.490 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 12.24 / day
- Inclination
- 11.559°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 182.26°
- Argument of perihelion
- 121.78°
- Mean diameter
- 18.78 ± 1.4 km 19.56 ± 0.31 km 19.618 ± 0.057 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 16.648 ± 0.009 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q157752
- Follows
- Q157716
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 19.618
- Orbital period
- 1420.346241845265
- Image
- 900Rosalinde (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A918 PJ
- time of discovery or invention
- 1918-08-10
- orbital inclination
- 11.55630753473211
- Commons category
- 900 Rosalinde
- albedo
- 0.085
- rotation period
- 16.689
- absolute magnitude
- 11.72
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1641854802467931
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.472846733660775
- periapsis
- 2.066841205117967
- apoapsis
- 2.878852262203583
- longitude of ascending node
- 182.0897950331638
- argument of periapsis
- 122.5127446915039
- mean anomaly
- 219.378032781134
- time of periapsis
- 2461555.3107851674
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
900 Rosalinde (prov. designation: A918 PJ or 1918 EC) is an elongated background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, that has a mean diameter of approximately 19 kilometers (12 miles). It was discovered on 10 August 1918, by astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The lengthy S/D-type asteroid has a rotation period of 16.6 hours. It was likely named after "Rosalinde", a character in the operetta Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q157742” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.