File:48_Doris_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
Small body data
48 Doris (A857 SA)
- Orbit class
- Main-belt Asteroid
- Diameter
- 216.473 km
- Albedo
- 0.065
- Rotation period
- 11.890 h
- Absolute magnitude
- 7.110 H
- Earth MOID
- 1.930 AU
via NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt
- Discovery date
- 19 September 1857
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ d ɔːr ɪ s /
- Named after
- Doris
- Alternative designations
- 1857 SA, 1948 FE
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Dorian / ˈ d ɔːr i ə n /
- Aphelion
- 500.093 million km (3.343 AU)
- Perihelion
- 430.463 million km (2.877 AU)
- Semi major axis
- 465.278 million km (3.110 AU )
- Orbital period sidereal
- 2003.453 d (5.49 a )
- Mean anomaly
- 336.191°
- Inclination
- 6.554°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 183.754°
- Argument of perihelion
- 257.583°
- Dimensions
- 278 km × 142 km
- Mean diameter
- 215 ± 3 km , 221.8 ± 7.5 km ( IRAS )
- Mass
- (6.9 ± 2.9) × 10 kg , (12.3 ± 6.0) × 10 kg
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 216.473
- Orbital period
- 2006.042188317724
- Image
- A570.M936.shape.png
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- A857 SA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1857-09-19
- orbital inclination
- 6.557769140795678
- albedo
- 0.065
- Commons category
- 48 Doris
- rotation period
- 11.89
- absolute magnitude
- 7.12
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.06626352751034335
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.112870761577706
- periapsis
- 2.906600964231758
- apoapsis
- 3.319140558923654
- longitude of ascending node
- 183.4280111676846
- argument of periapsis
- 251.355355562238
- mean anomaly
- 141.7452781681893
- time of periapsis
- 2460210.6471999995
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
48 Doris is one of the largest main belt asteroids. It was discovered on 19 September 1857 by Hermann Goldschmidt from his balcony in Paris.
To find a name for the object, Jacques Babinet of the Academy of Sciences created a shortlist and asked the geologist Élie de Beaumont to make the selection. De Beaumont chose Doris, after an Oceanid in Greek mythology. Since Doris was discovered on the same night as 49 Pales, de Beaumont suggested naming the two "The Twins".