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
- A. Schwassmann
- Discovery site
- Bergedorf Obs.
- Discovery date
- 28 February 1932
- Named after
- Walther Villiger , (Swiss astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1932 DB · 1964 TC
- Minor planet category
- Mars-crosser
- Observation arc
- 85.34 yr (31,171 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.2438 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.5424 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.3931 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.70 yr (1,352 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 76.690 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 58.32 / day
- Inclination
- 21.071°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 357.32°
- Argument of perihelion
- 88.759°
- Mars moid
- 0.2634 AU
- Dimensions
- 13.76 ± 1.38 km , 15.24 km (calculated)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Walther Augustin Villiger
- Followed by
- Q137891
- Follows
- Q137866
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Orbital period
- 1350.884704084926
- Image
- 001310-asteroid shape model (1310) Villigera.png
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Friedrich Karl Arnold Schwassmann
- site of astronomical discovery
- Hamburg-Bergedorf Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1964 TC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1932-02-28
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.3572871959915361
- absolute magnitude
- 11.46
- orbital inclination
- 21.05377951461757
- periapsis
- 1.537081363140175
- apoapsis
- 3.246023481056871
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.391552422098523
- mean anomaly
- 156.3449284871172
- longitude of ascending node
- 357.1620195644388
- argument of periapsis
- 88.84189538638316
- Commons category
- 1310 Villigera
- rotation period
- 7.83
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460413.8222987377
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1310 Villigera, provisional designation 1932 DB, is a stony asteroid and large Mars-crosser from the innermost regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 14 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 28 February 1932, by German astronomer Friedrich Schwassmann at Bergedorf Observatory in Hamburg, Germany. The asteroid was named after astronomer Walther Villiger.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1310 Villigera” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.