File:93_Minerva.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
- James Craig Watson
- Discovery site
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Discovery date
- 24 August 1867
- Pronunciation
- / m ɪ ˈ n ɜːr v ə /
- Named after
- Minerva
- Alternative designations
- 1949 QN 2 , A902 DA
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Minervian, Minervean / m ɪ ˈ n ɜːr v i ə n /
- Observation arc
- 146.14 yr (53379 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1429 AU (470.17 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.3711 AU (354.71 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.7570 AU (412.44 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.58 yr (1672.0 d )
- Average orbital speed
- ~17.86 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 262.022 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 55.116 / day
- Inclination
- 8.56143°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 4.06265°
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
93 Minerva is a large triple main-belt asteroid. It is a C-type asteroid, meaning that it has a dark surface and possibly a primitive carbonaceous composition. It was discovered by J. C. Watson on 24 August 1867, and named after Minerva, the Roman equivalent of Athena, goddess of wisdom. An occultation of a star by Minerva was observed in France, Spain and the United States on 22 November 1982. An occultation diameter of ~170 km was measured from the observations. Since then two more occultations have been observed, which give an estimated mean diameter of ~150 km.
Satellites
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “93 Minerva” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.