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
- Purple Mountain Obs.
- Discovery site
- Purple Mountain Obs.
- Discovery date
- 26 November 1975
- Pronunciation
- / n iː ɒ p ˈ t ɒ l ɪ m ə s /
- Named after
- Neoptolemus , (Greek mythology)
- Alternative designations
- 1975 WM 1 · 1951 XK
- Minor planet category
- Jupiter trojan , Greek · background
- Adjectives
- Neoptolemian
- Observation arc
- 66.46 yr (24,276 d)
- Aphelion
- 5.4219 AU
- Perihelion
- 4.9699 AU
- Semi major axis
- 5.1959 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 11.84 yr (4,326 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 242.76 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 4 59.52 / day
- Inclination
- 17.779°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 86.573°
- Argument of perihelion
- 320.49°
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Neoptolemus
- Followed by
- 2261 Keeler
- Follows
- 2259 Sofievka
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 76.435
- Orbital period
- 4333.310649174336
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Purple Mountain Observatory
- site of astronomical discovery
- Purple Mountain Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1975 WM1
- time of discovery or invention
- 1975-11-26
- orbital inclination
- 17.77246304152695
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.04422830212299591
- periapsis
- 4.971663934442605
- apoapsis
- 5.431791086219445
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 5.201727510331025
- mean anomaly
- 113.4725123050545
- longitude of ascending node
- 86.57608426830694
- argument of periapsis
- 323.0378061732566
- absolute magnitude
- 9.38
- Commons category
- 2260 Neoptolemus
- albedo
- 0.057
- rotation period
- 8.18
- asteroid spectral type
- D-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2459634.634316778
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2260 Neoptolemus /niːɒpˈtɒlɪməs/ is a large Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp, approximately 76 kilometers (47 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 26 November 1975, by astronomers at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanking, China. The dark D-type asteroid is one of the 50 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 8.18 hours. It was named after Neoptolemus from Greek mythology.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “2260 Neoptolemus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.