File:000212-asteroid_shape_model_(212)_Medea.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
- Johann Palisa
- Discovery date
- 6 February 1880
- Pronunciation
- / m ɪ ˈ d iː ə /
- Named after
- Medea
- Alternative designations
- A880 CA, 1930 FW
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 136.05 yr (49694 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.4422 AU (514.95 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.78929 AU (417.272 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.11575 AU (466.110 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.50 yr (2008.8 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 28.1280 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 45.156 / day
- Inclination
- 4.2636°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 313.478°
- Argument of perihelion
- 100.91°
- Mean diameter
- 136.12 ± 2.5 km , 144.13 ± 7.23 km
- Mass
- (1.32 ± 0.10) × 10 kg
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 136.12
- Orbital period
- 2010.325466477576
Show 19 more facts
- provisional designation
- A880 CA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1880-02-06
- orbital inclination
- 4.277943618471374
- albedo
- 0.0465
- catalog code
- 1930 FW
- density
- 2
- surface gravity
- 0.0381
- rotation period
- 10.283
- apparent magnitude
- 14.65
- Commons category
- 212 Medea
- absolute magnitude
- 8.48
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1028754219129413
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.117300230068423
- periapsis
- 2.796606653670825
- apoapsis
- 3.437993806466021
- longitude of ascending node
- 312.8804727650665
- argument of periapsis
- 105.8007510904045
- mean anomaly
- 272.1428033978445
- time of periapsis
- 2461491.1154437293
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
212 Medea is a main-belt asteroid that was discovered by Johann Palisa on February 6, 1880, in Pola, and was named after Medea, a figure in Greek mythology.
Photometric observations of this asteroid in 1987 gave an incomplete lightcurve with a period of 10.12 ± 0.06 hours and a brightness variation of 0.13 in magnitude. This object has a spectrum that matches a DCX: classification. Lightcurve data has also been recorded by observers at the Antelope Hill Observatory (H09), which has been designated as an official observatory by the Minor Planet Center. They found a period of 10.283 hours with a brightness variation of 0.08 magnitude.