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
- P. Wild
- Discovery site
- Zimmerwald Obs.
- Discovery date
- 12 October 1977
- Named after
- Max Schürer , (Swiss astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1977 TZ · A915 TB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , Maria
- Observation arc
- 103.02 yr (37,629 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.8341 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3098 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.5719 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.12 yr (1,507 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 5.5233 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 20.4 / day
- Inclination
- 15.055°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 17.893°
- Argument of perihelion
- 30.008°
- Mean diameter
- 11.582 ± 0.133 km , 13.27 ± 3.55 km , 15.95 ± 0.38 km , 15.99 ± 0.26 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 6.66 ± 0.05 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 2430 Bruce Helin
- Follows
- 2428 Kamenyar
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 11.582
- Orbital period
- 1506.918781594562
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Paul Wild
- site of astronomical discovery
- Zimmerwald Observatory
- provisional designation
- A915 TB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1977-10-12
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1011014677072707
- apoapsis
- 2.832402402753037
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.572335507508409
- mean anomaly
- 219.990367577356
- longitude of ascending node
- 17.85867103761638
- argument of periapsis
- 29.09167405044719
- absolute magnitude
- 12.12
- orbital inclination
- 15.05379202983297
- albedo
- 0.12
- rotation period
- 6.66
- periapsis
- 2.312268612263782
- time of periapsis
- 2461586.5642908383
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2429 Schürer, provisional designation 1977 TZ, is a Maria asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 12 kilometers (7 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 12 October 1977, by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild at Zimmerwald Observatory near Bern, Switzerland, and later named after Swiss astronomer Max Schürer. The likely elongated S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 6.6 hours.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “2429 Schürer” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.