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
- L. Volta
- Discovery site
- Pino Torinese Obs.
- Discovery date
- 30 March 1929
- Named after
- Fasces Lictores , (Symbol of fascism )
- Alternative designations
- 1929 FB · A909 UB, A917 DF · A924 KC
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Hygiea
- Observation arc
- 108.28 yr (39,549 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.5809 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7885 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1847 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.68 yr (2,076 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 312.44 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 24.24 / day
- Inclination
- 7.0735°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 110.84°
- Argument of perihelion
- 351.35°
- Mean diameter
- 69.93 ± 25.12 km , 78.86 km (derived) , 79.079 ± 0.298 km , 79.17 ± 2.9 km , 80.73 ± 0.96 km , 86.724 ± 1.421 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.56 h , 8.561 h , 8.5616 ± 0.0002 h , 8.5681 ± 0.0001 h , 8.586 ± 0.005 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- fasces
- Followed by
- 1108 Demeter
- Follows
- 1106 Cydonia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 79.079
- Orbital period
- 2078.769032370947
- Image
- 001107-asteroid shape model (1107) Lictoria.png
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Luigi Volta
- site of astronomical discovery
- Turin Astrophysical Observatory
- provisional designation
- A924 KC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1929-03-30
- orbital inclination
- 7.073236355461968
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.118800077571745
- albedo
- 0.066
- absolute magnitude
- 9.54
- periapsis
- 2.808964979093338
- apoapsis
- 3.566353283198127
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.187659131145732
- mean anomaly
- 79.46015829241979
- longitude of ascending node
- 110.5532172334861
- argument of periapsis
- 349.7150235081717
- Commons category
- 1107 Lictoria
- rotation period
- 8.5616
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460541.6685656514
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1107 Lictoria (prov. designation: 1929 FB) is a large Hygiea asteroid, approximately 79 kilometers (49 miles) in diameter, from the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered by Luigi Volta at the Pino Torinese Observatory in 1929, and named after the Fasces Lictores, Latin for "Fasci Littori", the symbol of the Italian fascist party.
Discovery
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1107 Lictoria” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.