1685 Toro

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

C. A. Wirtanen

Discovery site

Lick Obs.

Discovery date

17 July 1948

Named after

Betulia Toro Herrick, (wife Samuel Herrick )

Alternative designations

1948 OA

Minor planet category

NEO · Apollo , Mars-crosser

Observation arc

76.75 yr (28,032 days)

Aphelion

1.9643 AU

Perihelion

0.7714 AU

Semi major axis

1.3679 AU

Orbital period sidereal

1.60 yr (584 days)

Mean anomaly

319.462 °

Inclination

9.382°

Longitude of ascending node

274.208°

Argument of perihelion

127.279°

Earth moid

0.0510 AU · 19.9 LD

Mean diameter

3.810 ± 0.049 km , 4.1 km , 3.5 +0.3, −0.4 km

Synodic rotation period

10.185 ± 0.003 h , 10.1862 ± 0.0006 h , 10.191 ± 0.005 h , 10.195 h , 10.195 40 h , 10.196 h , 10.199 ± 0.003 h , 10.1995 ± 0.0004 h , 10.203 ± 0.003 h , 10.197 826 ± 0.000 002 h

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

3.4

Orbital period

584.3199923078618

Image

001685-asteroid shape model (1685) Toro.png

via Wikidata · CC0