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
Small body data
(227) Philosophia
- Orbit class
- Main-belt
- Semi-major axis
- 3.152 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.200
- Inclination
- 9.087 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 9.130 H
via Minor Planet Center
Key facts
- Discovered by
- P.P. Henry
- Discovery date
- 12 August 1882
- Pronunciation
- / f ɪ l oʊ ˈ s ɒ f i ə /
- Named after
- Philosophy
- Alternative designations
- A882 PA, 1919 AA, 1933 SD 1 , 1949 OO 1
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 108.20 yr (39519 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.7673 AU (563.58 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.56007 AU (382.981 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.16366 AU (473.277 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.63 yr (2055.3 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 16.78 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 71.2570 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 30.554 / day
- Inclination
- 9.1539°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 326.254°
- Argument of perihelion
- 267.020°
- Dimensions
- 87.31 ± 2.4 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- philosophy
- Followed by
- 228 Agathe
- Follows
- 226 Weringia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 123.891
- Mass
- 697000000000000000
- Orbital period
- 2044.468613234078
Show 21 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Paul-Pierre Henry
- site of astronomical discovery
- Paris Observatory, PSL University
- provisional designation
- A882 PA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1882-08-12
- orbital inclination
- 9.08703311777575
- density
- 2
- rotation period
- 26.468
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- apparent magnitude
- 13.85
- albedo
- 0.065
- Commons category
- 227 Philosophia
- absolute magnitude
- 9.13
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1998453106646174
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.152496989475417
- periapsis
- 2.522485249244431
- apoapsis
- 3.782508729706403
- longitude of ascending node
- 324.6494599448178
- argument of periapsis
- 271.6454115205897
- mean anomaly
- 302.8838052954886
- time of periapsis
- 2461324.867409391
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
227 Philosophia is a large main-belt asteroid that was discovered by the French astronomer Paul-Pierre Henry on August 12, 1882, in Paris and named after the topic of philosophy. Based upon photometric observations, it has a synodic rotation period of 52.98 ± 0.01 with a brightness variation of 0.15 ± 0.02 in magnitude.
References
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “227 Philosophia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.