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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
- H. L. Giclas
- Discovery site
- Flagstaff (LO)
- Discovery date
- 22 October 1960
- Named after
- Juan Bautista de Anza , (Governor of Nuevo México )
- Alternative designations
- 1960 UA
- Minor planet category
- Amor · NEO , Mars-crosser
- Observation arc
- 56.56 yr (20,659 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.4824 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.0527 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2675 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.41 yr (1,247 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 251.57 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 19.32 / day
- Inclination
- 3.7970°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 207.41°
- Argument of perihelion
- 156.95°
- Earth moid
- 0.0570 AU · 22.2 LD
- Dimensions
- 2.6 km , 2.71 km (calculated)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- near-Earth object
- Named after
- Juan Bautista de Anza
- Followed by
- 2062 Aten
- Follows
- 2060 Chiron
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 2.6
- Orbital period
- 1245.301629481342
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Henry L. Giclas
- site of astronomical discovery
- Lowell Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1960 UA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1960-10-22
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.5355996705135041
- albedo
- 0.057
- absolute magnitude
- 16.7
- orbital inclination
- 3.800470384812356
- periapsis
- 1.051985948326317
- apoapsis
- 3.478527410652286
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.265256679489302
- mean anomaly
- 38.88741723571029
- longitude of ascending node
- 207.3503665687932
- argument of periapsis
- 157.1063836870939
- Commons category
- 2061 Anza
- rotation period
- 6.712
- asteroid spectral type
- T-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460865.981766528
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2061 Anza, provisional designation 1960 UA, is an eccentric asteroid of the Amor group, a subtype of near-Earth objects, estimated to measure approximately 2.7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 October 1960, by American astronomer Henry Giclas at Lowell's Flagstaff Observatory in Arizona, United States. The asteroid was later named after Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza.
Classification and orbit
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “2061 Anza” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.