Image by mikenr1 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
- L. Chernykh
- Discovery site
- Crimean Astrophysical Obs.
- Discovery date
- 27 September 1973
- Named after
- 1977 Soviet Constitution
- Alternative designations
- 1973 SV 4 · 1938 SV, 1950 VG · 1953 EH, 1953 FE · 1967 RY, 1973 UE · 1976 ED
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer )
- Observation arc
- 49.63 yr (18,127 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.5286 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8995 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.2141 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.76 yr (2,105 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 35.505 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 15.6 / day
- Inclination
- 20.667°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 15.619°
- Argument of perihelion
- 201.79°
- Dimensions
- 45.46 ± 19.42 km , 50.07 ± 0.66 km , 50.31 km (derived) , 51.37 ± 0.80 km , 52.023 ± 0.135 km , 53.942 ± 0.281 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 11.2692 ± 0.0004 h , 11.279 ± 0.009 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- 1977 Soviet Constitution
- Followed by
- 2009 Voloshina
- Follows
- 2007 McCuskey
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- 52.023
- Orbital period
- 2104.289227279161
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Lyudmila Chernykh
- site of astronomical discovery
- Crimean Astrophysical Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1976 ED
- time of discovery or invention
- 1973-09-27
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.09595065964260364
- absolute magnitude
- 10.47
- orbital inclination
- 20.66237542151146
- periapsis
- 2.905338931190509
- apoapsis
- 3.522051259796072
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.21369509549329
- mean anomaly
- 189.0809213084637
- longitude of ascending node
- 15.57839512879628
- argument of periapsis
- 201.1380421124544
- Commons category
- 2008 Konstitutsiya
- albedo
- 0.07
- rotation period
- 11.2692
- time of periapsis
- 2461999.564377853
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2008 Konstitutsiya, provisionally designated 1973 SV4, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 50 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 27 September 1973, by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula. The asteroid was named for the 1977 Soviet Constitution.
Classification and orbit
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “2008 Konstitutsiya” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.