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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
- Pablo Cottenot
- Discovery date
- 2 February 1878
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ j uː k ə r ɪ s /
- Named after
- Eucharis
- Alternative designations
- A878 CB; 1906 GA
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 123.63 yr (45157 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.7664 AU (563.45 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.49280 AU (372.918 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.12958 AU (468.179 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.54 yr (2022.2 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 16.64 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 32.3207 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 40.879 / day
- Inclination
- 18.890°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 143.224°
- Argument of perihelion
- 318.943°
- Earth moid
- 1.53686 AU (229.911 Gm)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 115.383
- Orbital period
- 2016.352614144053
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- A878 CB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1878-02-02
- orbital inclination
- 18.90100860087066
- albedo
- 0.101
- Commons category
- 181 Eucharis
- rotation period
- 52.23
- absolute magnitude
- 8.07
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.208400939593537
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.123527763323728
- periapsis
- 2.472581642600564
- apoapsis
- 3.774473884046892
- longitude of ascending node
- 142.9840879533976
- argument of periapsis
- 318.9695625857099
- mean anomaly
- 278.6074073191066
- time of periapsis
- 2461456.3782417336
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Article
181 Eucharis is a large, slowly rotating main-belt asteroid that was discovered by French astronomer Pablo Cottenot on February 2, 1878, from Marseille Observatory. It was his only asteroid discovery. This object was named after Eucharis, a nymph from the 17th-century novel Les Aventures de Télémaque. It is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 3.13 AU with a moderate eccentricity of 0.20 and an orbital period of 5.54 years.
In the Tholen classification system, it is categorized as a stony S-type asteroid, while the Bus asteroid taxonomy system lists it as an Xk asteroid. Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Goat Mountain Astronomical Research Station in Rancho Cucamonga, California during 2007 gave a light curve with a leisurely rotation period of 52.23 ± 0.05 hours. Based on infrared measurements, it has a diameter of 116 km.