File:357_Ninina.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
- Auguste Charlois
- Discovery date
- 11 February 1893
- Alternative designations
- 1893 J
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 108.56 yr (39650 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.38973 AU (507.096 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.92272 AU (437.233 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.15623 AU (472.165 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.61 yr (2,048.1 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 144.322 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 32.783 / day
- Inclination
- 15.0642°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 137.809°
- Argument of perihelion
- 254.250°
- Dimensions
- 97 +7, −8 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 36.0105 h (1.50044 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.0510 ± 0.002
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 124.107
- Orbital period
- 2041.168562336525
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- A907 SA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1893-02-11
- orbital inclination
- 15.058326993529
- Commons category
- 357 Ninina
- albedo
- 0.037
- rotation period
- 35.983
- absolute magnitude
- 9.0
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.0779026143527518
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.149103703085344
- periapsis
- 2.903780291747064
- apoapsis
- 3.394427114423624
- longitude of ascending node
- 137.6149276475123
- argument of periapsis
- 256.3874810376512
- mean anomaly
- 21.40741052895119
- time of periapsis
- 2460879.1218517423
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
357 Ninina is a large main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by Auguste Charlois on February 11, 1893, in Nice. The reference of its name is not known, though Ninine is a French personal name. This minor planet is orbiting at a distance of 3.16 AU from the Sun with a period of 5.61 years and an orbital eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.074. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 15.1° to the plane of the ecliptic.
Photometric observations of 357 Ninina during 2023 provided a light curve that presents an Earth commensurate rotation period of 36.00±0.01 h with a brightness amplitude of 0.08±0.01 in magnitude. In 2024, spin shape modelling using the light curve inversion technique show a blocky, rounded figure, with a refined rotation period of 35.9840±0.0005 h