Image by Emslichter 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
Key facts
- Discovered by
- P. F. Shajn
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 15 August 1952
- Named after
- Boris Kukarkin (astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1952 PH · 1957 QB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer )
- Observation arc
- 63.87 yr (23,327 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.8543 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0177 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.9360 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.03 yr (1,838 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 324.18 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 45.24 / day
- Inclination
- 14.794°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 278.02°
- Argument of perihelion
- 70.427°
- Dimensions
- 13.659 ± 0.309 km , 30.59 km (calculated)
- Synodic rotation period
- 136.40 ± 0.03 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Boris Kukarkin
- Followed by
- 1955 McMath
- Follows
- 1953 Rupertwildt
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 13.659
- Orbital period
- 1833.711108065902
- Image
- 001954-asteroid shape model (1954) Kukarkin.png
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Pelageya Shajn
- site of astronomical discovery
- Simeiz Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1957 QB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1952-08-15
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.3145907647475689
- orbital inclination
- 14.8083496259327
- periapsis
- 2.009578355678453
- apoapsis
- 3.854300484350133
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.931939420014293
- mean anomaly
- 192.4856472283405
- longitude of ascending node
- 277.9504446056241
- argument of periapsis
- 70.28748901127067
- absolute magnitude
- 11.38
- Commons category
- 1954 Kukarkin
- albedo
- 0.261
- rotation period
- 136.4
- time of periapsis
- 2461853.7581373276
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1954 Kukarkin (prov. designation: 1952 PH) is an asteroid and slow rotator on an eccentric orbit from the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 15 August 1952, by Russian astronomer Pelageya Shajn at Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The asteroid has a exceptionally long rotation period of 136.4 hours and measures approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) in diameter. It was named after astronomer Boris Kukarkin.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1954 Kukarkin” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.