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
- J. Palisa
- Discovery site
- Austrian Naval Obs.
- Discovery date
- 21 April 1874
- Pronunciation
- / m ɛ l ɪ ˈ b iː ə /
- Named after
- Meliboea , daughter of Oceanus
- Alternative designations
- A874 HA · A923 FA · 1958 UE · 1962 GB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Meliboea
- Adjectives
- Meliboean / m ɛ l ɪ ˈ b iː ə n /
- Observation arc
- 133.02 yr (48,587 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.7859 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.4619 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1239 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.52 yr (2,017 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 327.88 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 42.6 / day
- Inclination
- 13.432°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 202.22°
- Argument of perihelion
- 107.17°
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Meliboea
- Followed by
- Q109891
- Follows
- 136 Austria
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 128.678
- Orbital period
- 2019.025139381822
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Johann Palisa
- site of astronomical discovery
- Pula Observatory
- provisional designation
- A874 HA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1874-04-21
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 13.42268102912006
- albedo
- 0.065
- Commons category
- 137 Meliboea
- rotation period
- 25.676
- absolute magnitude
- 8.35
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2107355954521996
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.126287156286152
- periapsis
- 2.467467170851626
- apoapsis
- 3.785107141720678
- longitude of ascending node
- 202.1385881038369
- argument of periapsis
- 107.976304213474
- mean anomaly
- 106.791075704438
- time of periapsis
- 2460401.572593031
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
137 Meliboea is a large, dark main-belt asteroid that was discovered by Austrian astronomer J. Palisa at the Austrian Naval Observatory on 21 April 1874, the second of his many asteroid discoveries. It was later named after Meliboea, the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys in Greek mythology. The largest body in the Meliboea family of asteroids that share similar orbital elements, only 791 Ani approaches its size. It is classified as a C-type asteroid and may be composed of carbonaceous materials. The spectra of the asteroid displays evidence of aqueous alteration.
Photometric observations of this asteroid made at the Torino Observatory in Italy during 1990–1991 were used to determine a synodic rotation period of 15.28 ± 0.02 hours. A 2009 study at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico found a period of 25.676 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.16 ± 0.02 in magnitude. They ruled out a period of 15 hours determined in previous studies.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q138460” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.