1565 Lemaître

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

25 November 1948

Named after

Georges Lemaître , (astronomer, priest)

Alternative designations

1948 WA

Minor planet category

Mars-crosser · Phocaea

Observation arc

68.44 yr (24,997 days)

Aphelion

3.2262 AU

Perihelion

1.5613 AU

Semi major axis

2.3938 AU

Orbital period sidereal

3.70 yr (1,353 days)

Mean anomaly

236.28 °

Mean motion

0° 15 57.96 / day

Inclination

21.485°

Longitude of ascending node

261.16°

Argument of perihelion

116.34°

Dimensions

6.90 ± 1.45 km , 7.949 ± 1.558 km , 8.00 ± 0.58 km , 8.76 km (calculated)

Synodic rotation period

2.4 ± 0.1 h , 11.403 ± 0.003 h

via Wikipedia infobox