Image by Pix-Off on Pixabay · Pixabay License
In the Vinony graph
Within Vinony's link graph, 10440 van Swinden connects to HTML element, list of minor planets: 10001–11000 and JPL Small-Body Database.
It is catalogued under topics including Astronomical objects discovered in 1960, Background asteroids and Discoveries by Cornelis Johannes van Houten.
Its subject is documented across 15 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
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Jean Henri van Swinden
- Followed by
- 10441 van Rijckevorsel
- Follows
- 10439 van Schooten
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 2.201
- Orbital period
- 1219.123473849511
Show 16 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Tom Gehrels
- site of astronomical discovery
- Palomar Observatory
- provisional designation
- 7636 P-L
- time of discovery or invention
- 1960-10-17
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1213244122411235
- argument of periapsis
- 229.3889809191155
- absolute magnitude
- 15.6
- orbital inclination
- 4.190716077122904
- periapsis
- 1.962432548410346
- apoapsis
- 2.504364016214073
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.23339828231221
- mean anomaly
- 251.2696325148032
- longitude of ascending node
- 56.10903315146307
- albedo
- 0.303
- time of periapsis
- 2461368.710398115
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0