File:313_Chaldaea.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
- 30 August 1891
- Pronunciation
- / k æ l ˈ d iː ə /
- Named after
- Chaldea
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 122.79 yr (44849 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.8054 AU (419.68 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.9456 AU (291.06 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.3755 AU (355.37 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.66 yr (1337.3 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 262.291 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 16 9.084 / day
- Inclination
- 11.654°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 176.640°
- Argument of perihelion
- 316.013°
- Dimensions
- 96.34 ± 1.7 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.392 h (0.3497 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.0524 ± 0.002
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Chaldea
- Followed by
- 314 Rosalia
- Follows
- 312 Pierretta
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 71.183
- Orbital period
- 1337.430529153557
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Johann Palisa
- site of astronomical discovery
- Vienna Observatory
- time of discovery or invention
- 1891-08-30
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 11.64374581915606
- Commons category
- 313 Chaldaea
- provisional designation
- A891 QB
- albedo
- 0.044
- rotation period
- 8.392
- absolute magnitude
- 9.18
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1808337863329593
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.375646789991656
- periapsis
- 1.946049585967724
- apoapsis
- 2.805243994015587
- longitude of ascending node
- 176.532699824671
- argument of periapsis
- 315.7342325335236
- mean anomaly
- 98.13747716871217
- time of periapsis
- 2460635.910949946
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
313 Chaldaea is a large Main belt asteroid. It is classified as a C-type asteroid and is probably composed of carbonaceous material. It was discovered by Johann Palisa on 30 August 1891 in Vienna. It was named in honor of the Chaldeans, considered the founders of astrology.
In 2003, the asteroid was detected by radar from the Arecibo Observatory at a distance of 1.07 AU. The resulting data yielded an effective diameter of 96 ± 14 km.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “313 Chaldaea” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.