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
- S. Arend
- Discovery site
- Uccle Obs.
- Discovery date
- 3 October 1930
- Named after
- Shota Rustaveli , (Georgian poet)
- Alternative designations
- 1930 TA · 1926 AD, 1926 FH · 1927 FC, 1949 BT · A904 EB, A913 TA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 113.85 yr (41,584 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.7970 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.5779 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1875 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.69 yr (2,079 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 175.66 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 23.52 / day
- Inclination
- 3.0731°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 121.78°
- Argument of perihelion
- 290.57°
- Mean diameter
- 68.67 ± 16.71 km , 70.13 ± 2.3 km , 70.216 ± 1.560 km , 70.98 ± 2.42 km , 72.09 ± 1.19 km , 72.38 ± 20.19 km , 82.229 ± 1.004 km
- Mass
- (1.81 ± 0.20) × 10 kg
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Shota Rustaveli
- Followed by
- 1172 Äneas
- Follows
- 1170 Siva
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 82.229
- Orbital period
- 2065.495629808155
- Image
- 001171-asteroid shape model (1171) Rusthawelia.png
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Sylvain Arend
- site of astronomical discovery
- Royal Observatory of Belgium
- provisional designation
- A913 TA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1930-10-03
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1948053006168477
- albedo
- 0.029
- orbital inclination
- 3.086319073092154
- periapsis
- 2.555748667050391
- apoapsis
- 3.792402082099627
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.174075374575009
- mean anomaly
- 301.1004650104562
- longitude of ascending node
- 121.4826438328067
- argument of periapsis
- 292.6325603655141
- absolute magnitude
- 9.9
- Commons category
- 1171 Rusthawelia
- rotation period
- 10.98
- asteroid spectral type
- P-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2461338.435366996
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1171 Rusthawelia, provisional designation 1930 TA, is a large and dark background asteroid, approximately 72 kilometers (45 miles) in diameter, located in the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 3 October 1930, by Belgian astronomer Sylvain Arend at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle, and was an unnoticed rediscovery of a lost minor planet then known as "Adelaide". As the asteroid was already named for Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli when the rediscovery was realized, its former designation was given to another asteroid instead, which is now known as 525 Adelaide. Rusthawelia is a primitive P-type asteroid and has a rotation period of 11 hours.
Unnoticed rediscovery of lost asteroid
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1171 Rusthawelia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.