Image by AlLes 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
(1873) Agenor
- Orbit class
- Jupiter Trojan
- Semi-major axis
- 5.218 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.092
- Inclination
- 21.909 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 10.150 H
via Minor Planet Center
Key facts
- Discovered by
- C. J. van Houten , I. van Houten-G. , T. Gehrels
- Discovery site
- Palomar Obs.
- Discovery date
- 25 March 1971
- Pronunciation
- / ə ˈ dʒ iː n ɔːr /
- Named after
- Agenor (Greek mythology)
- Alternative designations
- 1971 FH
- Minor planet category
- Jupiter trojan , Trojan · background
- Adjectives
- Agenorian
- Observation arc
- 47.16 yr (17,227 d)
- Aphelion
- 5.7155 AU
- Perihelion
- 4.7470 AU
- Semi major axis
- 5.2313 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 11.97 yr (4,370 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 320.34 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 4 56.64 / day
- Inclination
- 21.880°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 197.92°
- Argument of perihelion
- 357.28°
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Agenor
- Followed by
- 1874 Kacivelia
- Follows
- 1872 Helenos
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 50.799
- Orbital period
- 4356.223425286787
- Image
- 001873-asteroid shape model (1873) Agenor.png
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Tom Gehrels
- site of astronomical discovery
- Palomar Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1971 FH
- time of discovery or invention
- 1971-03-25
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.0918937311778705
- orbital inclination
- 21.90442420984566
- periapsis
- 4.740358126532518
- apoapsis
- 5.699737464220442
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 5.22004779537648
- mean anomaly
- 191.5836847951869
- longitude of ascending node
- 197.8901940807112
- argument of periapsis
- 357.3340638816242
- absolute magnitude
- 10.14
- Commons category
- 1873 Agenor
- albedo
- 0.062
- rotation period
- 20.6
- time of periapsis
- 2463038.441937488
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1873 Agenor /əˈdʒiːnɔːr/ (prov. designation: 1971 FH) is a dark Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp, approximately 53 kilometers (33 miles) in diameter. It was discovered during the Palomar–Leiden Trojan survey in 1971, and later named after Agenor from Greek mythology. The dark Jovian asteroid belongs to the 100 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 20.60 hours.
Discovery
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1873 Agenor” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.