File:1042_Amazone_Hubble.jpg · 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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 22 April 1925
- Pronunciation
- German: [ ˈaːmaːtsoːnə ]
- Named after
- Ἀμαζών Amazōn , ( Greek mythology )
- Alternative designations
- 1925 HA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer )
- Observation arc
- 92.18 yr (33,669 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.5294 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.9518 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.2406 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.83 yr (2,131 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 221.26 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 8.4 / day
- Inclination
- 20.702°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 52.440°
- Argument of perihelion
- 296.19°
- Dimensions
- 63.920 ± 0.102 km , 65.823 ± 0.307 km , 71.88 ± 1.08 km , 73.59 km (derived) , 73.64 ± 1.8 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Amazons
- Followed by
- Q121603
- Follows
- Q121577
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- 63.92
- Orbital period
- 2125.206483340326
- Image
- 1042 Amazone Hubble.jpg
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1925 HA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1925-04-22
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.08685647667546206
- orbital inclination
- 20.70931345251471
- periapsis
- 2.953979746454093
- apoapsis
- 3.515933626417143
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.234956686435618
- mean anomaly
- 6.084487501608581
- longitude of ascending node
- 52.37363163391188
- argument of periapsis
- 299.084882719945
- absolute magnitude
- 9.95
- Commons category
- 1042 Amazone
- albedo
- 0.054
- rotation period
- 540.0
- time of periapsis
- 2460964.581132538
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1042 Amazone, provisional designation 1925 HA, is a dark asteroid and slow rotator in the outer asteroid belt, approximately 70 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 April 1925, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany. It is named after the Amazons from Greek mythology.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1042 Amazone” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.