File:213_Lilaea.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
- C. H. F. Peters
- Discovery date
- 16 February 1880
- Pronunciation
- / l aɪ ˈ l iː ə /
- Named after
- Lilaea
- Alternative designations
- A880 DA, 1950 TE 3
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 136.08 yr (49704 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1538 AU (471.80 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.34961 AU (351.497 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.75172 AU (411.651 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.56 yr (1667.3 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 17.95 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 199.50 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 57.312 / day
- Inclination
- 6.8028°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 122.113°
- Argument of perihelion
- 162.34°
- Dimensions
- 83.01 ± 2.6 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 82.096
- Orbital period
- 1669.88498521372
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- A880 DA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1880-02-16
- orbital inclination
- 6.819570364198543
- albedo
- 0.092
- rotation period
- 12.042
- Commons category
- 213 Lilaea
- absolute magnitude
- 9.1
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1456405330371999
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.754601345374169
- periapsis
- 2.353419737128887
- apoapsis
- 3.155782953619451
- longitude of ascending node
- 121.8373875089348
- argument of periapsis
- 164.0492084496113
- mean anomaly
- 211.0377417414523
- time of periapsis
- 2461691.4717734153
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
213 Lilaea is a large main belt asteroid. It was discovered by German-American astronomer C. H. F. Peters on February 16, 1880, in Clinton, New York and was named after Lilaea, a Naiad in Greek mythology.
Photometric observations of this asteroid in 1986 gave a light curve with a period of 8.045 ± 0.008 hours and a brightness variation of 0.20 ± 0.01 in magnitude. The curve is asymmetrical with two distinct minima. This object has a spectrum that matches an F-type asteroid classification. As with C-type asteroids, its composition is primitive and rich in carbon.