Image by VIVIANE6276 on Pixabay · Pixabay License
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
Small body data
(1301) Yvonne
- Orbit class
- Main-belt
- Semi-major axis
- 2.765 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.271
- Inclination
- 34.049 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 11.500 H
via Minor Planet Center
Key facts
- Discovered by
- L. Boyer
- Discovery site
- Algiers Obs.
- Discovery date
- 7 March 1934
- Named after
- Yvonne Boyer , (discoverer's sister)
- Alternative designations
- 1934 EA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 83.32 yr (30,433 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.5134 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0225 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.7680 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.61 yr (1,682 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 96.456 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 50.4 / day
- Inclination
- 34.030°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 161.56°
- Argument of perihelion
- 302.27°
- Mean diameter
- 18.693 ± 4.943 km , 20.44 ± 5.24 km , 21.438 ± 0.088 km , 21.54 ± 0.25 km , 21.681 ± 0.204 km , 21.95 ± 0.41 km , 22.77 ± 2.4 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 7.2536 ± 0.0002 h , 7.3196 ± 0.0001 h , 7.3200 ± 0.0001 h , 7.320 ± 0.005 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 1302 Werra
- Follows
- 1300 Marcelle
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 21.438
- Orbital period
- 1680.063946060691
- Image
- 1301Yvonne (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Louis Boyer
- site of astronomical discovery
- Center of Research in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Geophysics
- provisional designation
- 1934 EA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1934-03-07
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2712997046103844
- albedo
- 0.111
- orbital inclination
- 34.04563644326032
- periapsis
- 2.01542760317963
- apoapsis
- 3.516140356737382
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.765783979958506
- mean anomaly
- 19.55945658797378
- longitude of ascending node
- 161.4743528310267
- argument of periapsis
- 301.9990090161091
- absolute magnitude
- 11.53
- Commons category
- 1301 Yvonne
- rotation period
- 7.32
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460909.219061617
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1301 Yvonne (prov. designation: 1934 EA) is a carbonaceous background asteroid from the background population of the intermediate asteroid belt, approximately 21 kilometers (13 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 7 March 1934, by French astronomer Louis Boyer at the Algiers Observatory in North Africa. The asteroid was named for the discoverer's sister, Yvonne Boyer
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1301 Yvonne” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.