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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
- J. B. Gibson
- Discovery site
- El Leoncito Complex
- Discovery date
- 21 September 1973
- Named after
- Carl Leo Stearns , (American astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1973 SC · 1973 UG
- Minor planet category
- Mars-crosser , Hungaria
- Observation arc
- 44.35 yr (16,199 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.1317 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.6366 AU
- Semi major axis
- 1.8841 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 2.59 yr (945 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 134.07 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 22 51.96 / day
- Inclination
- 27.751°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 77.035°
- Argument of perihelion
- 200.71°
- Earth moid
- 0.6305 AU (245 LD )
- Mars moid
- 0.1655 AU
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 2036 Sheragul
- Follows
- 2034 Bernoulli
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 4.824
- Orbital period
- 944.4423171691617
Show 20 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- James Gibson
- site of astronomical discovery
- Leoncito Astronomical Complex
- provisional designation
- 1973 UG
- time of discovery or invention
- 1973-09-21
- asteroid family
- Hungaria family
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1315517184728728
- orbital inclination
- 27.75514232209153
- periapsis
- 1.636045210959085
- apoapsis
- 2.131698351345334
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 1.88387178115221
- mean anomaly
- 121.3538069473696
- longitude of ascending node
- 77.00344215957993
- argument of periapsis
- 200.6383408912428
- absolute magnitude
- 12.42
- Commons category
- 2035 Stearns
- albedo
- 0.649
- rotation period
- 93.0
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460682.1342482483
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2035 Stearns, provisional designation 1973 SC, is a bright Hungaria asteroid and sizable Mars-crosser inside the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 21 September 1973, by American astronomer James Gibson at the Leoncito Astronomical Complex in Argentina. The transitional E-type asteroid has a long rotation period of 93 hours. It was named after American astronomer Carl Leo Stearns.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “2035 Stearns” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.