File:000870-asteroid_shape_model_(870)_Manto.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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 12 May 1917
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ m æ n t oʊ /
- Named after
- Μαντώ Mantō ( Greek mythology )
- Alternative designations
- A917 JC · 1935 NB, 1935 QV · 1953 UE 1 , A907 TF · A914 UC, 1917 BX · 1907 TF, 1914 UC
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) background
- Adjectives
- Mantoian / m æ n ˈ t oʊ . i ə n /
- Observation arc
- 102.14 yr (37,307 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9379 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.7065 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.3222 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.54 yr (1,293 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 343.87 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 16 42.6 / day
- Inclination
- 6.1928°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 120.80°
- Argument of perihelion
- 196.89°
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Manto
- Followed by
- Q157545
- Follows
- Q157526
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 13.683
- Orbital period
- 1292.340519883291
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A917 JC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1917-05-12
- orbital inclination
- 6.198886511999969
- Commons category
- 870 Manto
- albedo
- 0.216
- rotation period
- 122.3
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 11.77
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2657530569230621
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.321947288011235
- periapsis
- 1.704882698208035
- apoapsis
- 2.939011877814435
- longitude of ascending node
- 120.7425042842203
- argument of periapsis
- 197.160947110447
- mean anomaly
- 180.5093358103655
- time of periapsis
- 2461644.8418285362
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
870 Manto (prov. designation: A917 JC or 1917 BX) is a stony background asteroid and slow rotator from the inner region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 12 May 1917, by astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The likely heavily elongated S-type asteroid has a long rotation period of 122.3 hours and measures approximately 13 kilometers (8 miles) in diameter. It was named after Manto, a prophetess in Greek mythology.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “870 Manto” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.