File:30_Urania_VLT_(2021),_deconvolved.pdf · 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
- J. R. Hind
- Discovery date
- July 22, 1854
- Pronunciation
- / j ʊəˈr eɪ n i ə / yoor- AY -nee-ə
- Named after
- Urania
- Alternative designations
- 1948 JK
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Symbol
- (astrological)
- Aphelion
- 398.863 Gm (2.666 AU )
- Perihelion
- 309.039 Gm (2.066 AU)
- Semi major axis
- 353.951 Gm (2.366 AU)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 1,329.308 d (3.64 a )
- Mean anomaly
- 211.291°
- Inclination
- 2.093°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 307.403°
- Argument of perihelion
- 87.100°
- Earth moid
- 1.07287 AU
- Jupiter moid
- 2.74597 AU
- Dimensions
- 112 km × 84 km × 76 km (± 5 km × 5 km × 4 km )
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
30 Urania is a large main-belt asteroid that was discovered by English astronomer John Russell Hind on July 22, 1854. It was his last asteroid discovery. This object is named after Urania, the Greek Muse of astronomy. Initial orbital elements for 30 Urania were published by Wilhelm Günther, an assistant at Breslau Observatory. It is orbiting the Sun with a period of 3.64 years and is spinning on its axis once every 13.7 hours.
Based upon its spectrum, this is classified as a stony S-type asteroid. During 2000, speckle interferometry measurements from the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in the Canary Islands were used to measure the apparent size and shape of 30 Urania. This gave cross-sectional dimensions equivalent to an ellipse with a length of 111 km and a width of 89 km, for a ratio of 0.80.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “30 Urania” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.