File:704_Interamnia_VLT_(2021),_deconvolved.pdf · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 107 inbound references to Q156655, and connects out to apsis, Q155539 and 229762 Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà.
Vinony files it under 1910 in science, Astronomical objects discovered in 1910 and Background asteroids.
Vinony links it to 50 Wikipedia language editions.
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
- Vincenzo Cerulli
- Discovery date
- 2 October 1910
- Pronunciation
- / ɪ n t ər ˈ æ m n i ə /
- Named after
- Teramo
- Alternative designations
- 1910 KU; 1952 MW
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Interamnian / ɪ n t ər ˈ æ m n i ə n /
- Observation arc
- 110.8 yr
- Aphelion
- 3.53 AU (528 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.58 AU (386 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.056 AU (457.2 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.34 yr (1951 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 16.92 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 248°
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 4.2 / day
- Inclination
- 17.31°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 280.3°
- Argument of perihelion
- 94.8°
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 306.313
- Orbital period
- 1951.529351312479
- Image
- 704 Interamnia VLT (2021), deconvolved.pdf
Show 16 more facts
- provisional designation
- A910 TC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1910-10-02
- orbital inclination
- 17.31546543800749
- Commons category
- 704 Interamnia
- albedo
- 0.078
- rotation period
- 8.727
- flattening
- 0.14
- absolute magnitude
- 6.33
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1552477966524339
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.056218782579697
- periapsis
- 2.581747550496415
- apoapsis
- 3.530690014662979
- longitude of ascending node
- 280.16607683425
- argument of periapsis
- 94.10694029347708
- mean anomaly
- 184.2054144778067
- time of periapsis
- 2461953.467481801
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
704 Interamnia is a large F-type asteroid. With a mean diameter of around 330 kilometres, it is the fifth-largest asteroid, after Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Hygiea. Its mean distance from the Sun is 3.067 AU. It was discovered on 2 October 1910 by Vincenzo Cerulli, and named after the Latin name for Teramo, Italy, where Cerulli worked. Its mass is probably between fifth and tenth highest in the asteroid belt, with a mass estimated to be 1.2% of the mass of the entire asteroid belt. Observations by the Very Large Telescope's SPHERE imager in 2017–2019, combined with occultation results, indicate that the shape of Interamnia may be consistent with hydrostatic equilibrium for a body of its density with a rotational period of 7.6 hours. (Its current period is 8.7 hours.) This suggests that Interamnia may have formed as an equilibrium body, and that impacts changed its rotational period after it fully solidified.
Characteristics
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q156655” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.