File:108_Hecuba.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
- R. Luther
- Discovery date
- 2 April 1869
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ h ɛ k j ʊ b ə /
- Named after
- Hecuba
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 135.87 yr (49628 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.4190 AU (511.48 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 3.05922 AU (457.653 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.23912 AU (484.565 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.83 yr (2129.3 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 16.53 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 166.649 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 8.648 / day
- Inclination
- 4.2204°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 350.014°
- Argument of perihelion
- 204.634°
- Earth moid
- 2.05833 AU (307.922 Gm)
- Jupiter moid
- 1.55152 AU (232.104 Gm)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Hecuba
- Followed by
- 109 Felicitas
- Follows
- 107 Camilla
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- 75.498
- Mass
- 390
- Orbital period
- 2122.570061154635
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Robert Luther
- site of astronomical discovery
- Düsseldorf-Bilk Observatory
- time of discovery or invention
- 1869-04-02
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 4.209403460676847
- albedo
- 0.148
- Commons category
- 108 Hecuba
- provisional designation
- A869 GB
- rotation period
- 14.256
- absolute magnitude
- 7.96
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.06333161631568503
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.232280718712619
- periapsis
- 3.027575156410524
- apoapsis
- 3.436986281014712
- longitude of ascending node
- 349.7243508060774
- argument of periapsis
- 213.2544361031759
- mean anomaly
- 13.05751171223747
- time of periapsis
- 2460923.5125460178
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Spectral type S Absolute magnitude (H) 8.09
108 Hecuba is a fairly large and bright main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by Karl Theodor Robert Luther on 2 April 1869, and named after Hecuba, wife of King Priam in the legends of the Trojan War in Greek Mythology. This object is orbiting the Sun with a period of 5.83 years and an eccentricity of 0.06. It became the first asteroid discovered to orbit near a 2:1 mean-motion resonance with the planet Jupiter, and is the namesake of the Hecuba group of asteroids.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “108 Hecuba” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.