File:A713.M1189.shape.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
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
- R. Luther
- Discovery date
- 5 May 1853
- Pronunciation
- / p r oʊ ˈ s ɜːr p ɪ n ə /
- Named after
- Proserpina
- Alternative designations
- 1935 KK; 1954 WD 1
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Proserpinian / ˌ p r ɒ s ər ˈ p ɪ n i ə n /
- Symbol
- (historical)
- Aphelion
- 2.890 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.420 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.655 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.327 yr (1580.27 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 289.591°
- Inclination
- 3.555°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 45.685°
- Argument of perihelion
- 196.057°
- Jupiter moid
- 2.106 AU
- Dimensions
- 94.8 ± 1.7 km ( IRAS ) , 89.63 ± 3.55 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Proserpina
- Followed by
- 27 Euterpe
- Follows
- Q108336
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 94.8
- Orbital period
- 1580.266117663556
- Image
- A713.M1189.shape.png
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Robert Luther
- site of astronomical discovery
- Düsseldorf-Bilk Observatory
- provisional designation
- A853 JA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1853-05-05
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 3.554525040584192
- albedo
- 0.1966
- Commons category
- 26 Proserpina
- rotation period
- 13.11
- absolute magnitude
- 7.48
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.08863093278319341
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.655142704165173
- periapsis
- 2.419814929622523
- apoapsis
- 2.890470478707823
- longitude of ascending node
- 45.68533690310257
- argument of periapsis
- 196.0565411245633
- mean anomaly
- 289.5907376447885
- time of periapsis
- 2461309.5704768603
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
26 Proserpina is a main-belt asteroid discovered by German astronomer R. Luther on 5 May 1853. It is named after the Roman goddess Proserpina, the daughter of Ceres and the Queen of the Roman Underworld. Another main-belt asteroid, 399 Persephone, discovered in 1895, is named after her Greek counterpart. Its historical symbol was a star inside a pomegranate; it is encoded in Unicode as U+1CECD ASTRONOMICAL SYMBOL FOR ASTEROID PROSERPINA ().
This object is orbiting the Sun with a period of 4.33 years. It has a cross-section size of around 90 km and a stony (S-type) composition. Photometric observations of this asteroid have produced discrepant estimates of the rotation period. A period of 12.13 hours was reported in 1979, followed by 10.6 hours in 1981 and 6.67 hours in 2001. Observations made in 2007 at the Oakley Observatory in Terre Haute, Indiana produced a light curve with a period of 13.06 ± 0.03 hours and a brightness variation of 0.21 ± 0.01 in magnitude. This was refined by a 2008 study, giving a period of 13.110 ± 0.001 hours.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “26 Proserpina” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.