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
- 17 November 1924
- Named after
- The Geisha , (British musical)
- Alternative designations
- 1924 TE · 1932 BP, 1941 YG · 1947 NC, 1950 JF · 1974 HU 2 , A916 HB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Flora
- Observation arc
- 92.63 yr (33,833 d )
- Aphelion
- 2.6723 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8094 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2409 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.35 yr (1,225 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 256.96 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 37.68 / day
- Inclination
- 5.6667°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 78.223°
- Argument of perihelion
- 300.39°
- Dimensions
- 9.96 ± 2.15 km , 10.555 ± 0.095 km , 10.729 ± 0.112 km , 11.52 km (calculated)
- Synodic rotation period
- 25.62 ± 0.02 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- The Geisha
- Followed by
- (1048) Feodosia
- Follows
- 1046 Edwin
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 10.729
- Orbital period
- 1225.838866317759
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A924 WM
- time of discovery or invention
- 1924-11-17
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1924977025633027
- orbital inclination
- 5.664796691481516
- periapsis
- 1.810090990189705
- apoapsis
- 2.673093753520833
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.241592371855269
- mean anomaly
- 58.33944810968054
- longitude of ascending node
- 78.18227580300629
- argument of periapsis
- 300.4149279700221
- absolute magnitude
- 11.97
- albedo
- 0.277
- rotation period
- 25.62
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460801.8478807434
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1047 Geisha, provisional designation 1924 TE, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 11 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 17 November 1924, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named after the British musical The Geisha.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “(1047) Geisha” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.