File:286_Iclea.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
- 3 August 1889
- Pronunciation
- French: [ ikle.a ]
- Named after
- Icléa
- Alternative designations
- A889 PB
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 117.95 yr (43,083 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.287 AU (491.8 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 3.102 AU (464.1 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.195 AU (477.9 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.71 yr (2,085.8 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 49.3850 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 21.335 / day
- Inclination
- 17.9010°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 149.115°
- Argument of perihelion
- 213.463°
- Dimensions
- 94.30 ± 2.6 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 15.365 h (0.6402 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 94.3
- Orbital period
- 2086.378711669876
Show 15 more facts
- time of discovery or invention
- 1889-08-03
- orbital inclination
- 17.93683862116668
- Commons category
- 286 Iclea
- provisional designation
- A889 PB
- albedo
- 0.0508
- rotation period
- 15.365
- absolute magnitude
- 9.02
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.02306814997754977
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.195433696397257
- periapsis
- 3.121720952645449
- apoapsis
- 3.269146440149065
- longitude of ascending node
- 148.9117568885246
- argument of periapsis
- 210.4142572527298
- mean anomaly
- 279.3978211326133
- time of periapsis
- 2461467.6296391753
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
286 Iclea is a large main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on 3 August 1889 in Vienna, and named for the heroine of Camille Flammarion's astronomical romance Uranie. This object is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 3.19 AU with a period of 5.711 years and an orbital eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.029. The orbital plane is tilted at an angle of 17.9° to the plane of the ecliptic.
This asteroid has a classification of CX in the Tholen taxonomy, indicating a generally carbonaceous composition. Infrared measurements indicate a cross-sectional diameter of approximately 94.3 km. Photometric observations of this asteroid in 2001 provided a light curve that was used to derive a synodic rotation period of 15.365±0.002 hours with an amplitude of 0.15 magnitude.