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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
- T. Smirnova
- Discovery site
- Crimean Astrophysical Obs.
- Discovery date
- 22 October 1968
- Named after
- Saint Petersburg , (Russian city)
- Alternative designations
- 1968 UD 1 · 1929 VK, 1934 RK · 1940 UF, 1955 HN · 1957 YV, 1973 QS · 1973 SH 3
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Themis
- Observation arc
- 87.51 yr (31,964 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.7227 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.5902 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1565 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.61 yr (2,048 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 288.85 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 32.88 / day
- Inclination
- 2.7356°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 73.570°
- Argument of perihelion
- 284.26°
- Dimensions
- 23.55 km (calculated) , 23.968 ± 0.292 km , 27.67 ± 0.67 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 5.296 ± 0.003 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- small Solar System body
- Named after
- Saint Petersburg
- Followed by
- 2047 Smetana
- Follows
- 2045 Peking
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 23.968
- Orbital period
- 2051.941931550341
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Tamara Smirnova
- site of astronomical discovery
- Crimean Astrophysical Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1973 SH3
- time of discovery or invention
- 1968-10-22
- rotation period
- 5.296
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1831029409188569
- orbital inclination
- 2.731204426647609
- periapsis
- 2.581537425602049
- apoapsis
- 3.738811991510059
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.160174708556054
- mean anomaly
- 95.12736882771047
- longitude of ascending node
- 73.51017381409326
- argument of periapsis
- 284.9999558851529
- absolute magnitude
- 11.56
- Commons category
- 2046 Leningrad
- albedo
- 0.085
- time of periapsis
- 2460458.2893418455
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2046 Leningrad, provisional designation 1968 UD1, is a carbonaceous Themistian asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 24 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 October 1968, by Soviet astronomer Tamara Smirnova at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnij, on the Crimean peninsula. The asteroid was named after the Soviet city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “2046 Leningrad” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.