File:000103-asteroid_shape_model_(103)_Hera.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
- James Craig Watson
- Discovery date
- 7 September 1868
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ h ɪər ə /
- Named after
- Hera
- Alternative designations
- A868 RA, 1927 CV, 1950 CM
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 144.99 yr (52958 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.92042 AU (436.889 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.48175 AU (371.265 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.70109 AU (404.077 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.44 yr (1621.5 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 18.09 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 133.341 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 19.279 / day
- Inclination
- 5.41957°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 136.186°
- Argument of perihelion
- 188.361°
- Earth moid
- 1.46898 AU (219.756 Gm)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Hera
- Followed by
- 104 Klymene
- Follows
- 102 Miriam
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 83.908
- Mass
- 790000000000000000
- Orbital period
- 1622.979859492214
Show 21 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- James Craig Watson
- site of astronomical discovery
- Detroit Observatory
- provisional designation
- A868 RA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1868-09-07
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 5.426017176552056
- albedo
- 0.217
- temperature
- 169
- rotation period
- 23.740
- surface gravity
- 0.0255
- Commons category
- 103 Hera
- absolute magnitude
- 7.74
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.08104320678042298
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.702774435090457
- periapsis
- 2.48373292766658
- apoapsis
- 2.921815942514334
- longitude of ascending node
- 135.9513290472888
- argument of periapsis
- 190.3938560865785
- mean anomaly
- 165.5988084265673
- time of periapsis
- 2460253.934636577
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
103 Hera is a moderately large main-belt asteroid with an orbital period of 4.44 years. It was discovered by Canadian-American astronomer James Craig Watson on September 7, 1868, and named after Hera, queen and fifth in power of the Olympian gods in Greek mythology. This is a stony S-type asteroid with a silicate surface composition.
Photometric observations made in 2010 at the Organ Mesa Observatory at Las Cruces, New Mexico, and the Hunters Hill Observatory at Ngunnawal, Australian Capital Territory, give a synodic rotation period of 23.740±0.001 h. The bimodal light curve shows a maximum brightness variation of 0.45 ± 0.03 in magnitude.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “103 Hera” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.