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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
Small body data
(1947) Iso-Heikkila
- Orbit class
- Main-belt
- Semi-major axis
- 3.152 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.044
- Inclination
- 11.890 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 11.330 H
via Minor Planet Center
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Y. Väisälä
- Discovery site
- Turku Obs.
- Discovery date
- 4 March 1935
- Named after
- Iso-Heikkilä (location)
- Alternative designations
- 1935 EA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Eos
- Observation arc
- 81.94 yr (29,928 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.2712 AU
- Perihelion
- 3.0367 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1539 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.60 yr (2,046 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 198.82 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 33.6 / day
- Inclination
- 11.912°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 90.908°
- Argument of perihelion
- 144.06°
- Dimensions
- 29.20 km (derived) , 30.72 ± 0.86 km , 31.61 ± 0.81 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 5.0158 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Iso-Heikkilä
- Followed by
- 1948 Kampala
- Follows
- 1946 Walraven
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 31.611
- Orbital period
- 2043.516333938357
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Yrjö Väisälä
- site of astronomical discovery
- Iso-Heikkilä Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1935 EA
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.04412240511663754
- orbital inclination
- 11.8901891783496
- periapsis
- 3.01246543957908
- apoapsis
- 3.290570546836451
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.151517993207765
- mean anomaly
- 7.758187875516387
- longitude of ascending node
- 90.61824681646011
- argument of periapsis
- 143.3968507492443
- absolute magnitude
- 11.3
- time of discovery or invention
- 1935-03-03
- albedo
- 0.049
- rotation period
- 5.0158
- time of periapsis
- 2460956.4611565406
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1947 Iso-Heikkilä, provisional designation 1935 EA, is a carbonaceous Eos asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 4 March 1935, by Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä at Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland. It was named after the location of the discovering observatory, which is also known as the "Iso-Heikkilä Observatory".
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1947 Iso-Heikkilä” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.