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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
- Johann Palisa
- Discovery date
- 28 November 1883
- Pronunciation
- / k ær ə ˈ l aɪ n ə /
- Named after
- Caroline Island
- Alternative designations
- A883 WA, 1909 GJ, 1934 GY, 1939 GN, 1956 VK
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 132.11 yr (48,255 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.06301 AU (458.220 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.69787 AU (403.596 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.88044 AU (430.908 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.89 yr (1,785.6 d)
- Orbital period synodic
- 17.1600 ± 0.0004 hr
- Average orbital speed
- 17.54 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 178.096 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 5.803 / day
- Inclination
- 9.03035°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 66.0344°
- Argument of perihelion
- 209.338°
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Caroline Island
- Followed by
- Q148805
- Follows
- 234 Barbara
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 57.517
- Orbital period
- 1786.733374515216
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Johann Palisa
- site of astronomical discovery
- Vienna Observatory
- provisional designation
- A883 WA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1883-11-28
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 9.029523655822478
- Commons category
- 235 Carolina
- albedo
- 0.177
- rotation period
- 17.61
- absolute magnitude
- 8.98
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.06013689988789367
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.88164768315125
- periapsis
- 2.708354324917403
- apoapsis
- 3.054941041385098
- longitude of ascending node
- 65.98776215620256
- argument of periapsis
- 208.0132202106182
- mean anomaly
- 144.4526844683104
- time of periapsis
- 2460283.559910062
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
235 Carolina is a sizeable Main belt asteroid. It was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on 28 November 1883 in Vienna, and was named after Caroline Island, now part of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean. This asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.88 AU with a period of 4.89 yr and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.06. The orbital plane is tilted at an angle of 9.0° to the plane of the ecliptic.
Photometric data collected during 2007 were used to construct a light curve that demonstrated a rotation period of 17.1600±0.0004 h with a brightness variation of 0.30±0.02 in magnitude. It is a stony S-type asteroid.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “235 Carolina” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.