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
- Oak Ridge Obs.
- Discovery site
- Oak Ridge Obs.
- Discovery date
- 27 January 1982
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ p æ n d ə r ə s /
- Named after
- Pandarus , (Greek mythology)
- Alternative designations
- 1982 BC 3 · 1972 GE, 1976 SM 6 · 1977 RB 6
- Minor planet category
- Jupiter trojan , Trojan · background
- Adjectives
- Pandarian
- Observation arc
- 46.11 yr (16,842 d)
- Aphelion
- 5.5357 AU
- Perihelion
- 4.8251 AU
- Semi major axis
- 5.1804 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 11.79 yr (4,307 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 311.54 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 5 0.96 / day
- Inclination
- 1.8549°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 179.81°
- Argument of perihelion
- 39.446°
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Pandarus
- Followed by
- 2675 Tolkien
- Follows
- Q733656
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 74.267
- Orbital period
- 4328.05740223059
- Image
- Орбита астероида 2674.png
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Oak Ridge Observatory
- site of astronomical discovery
- Oak Ridge Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1982 BC3
- time of discovery or invention
- 1982-01-27
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.0687626069408086
- albedo
- 0.067
- orbital inclination
- 1.856999964330687
- periapsis
- 4.840127438048056
- apoapsis
- 5.554917851419627
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 5.197522644733842
- mean anomaly
- 183.0917245396187
- longitude of ascending node
- 179.6955299851949
- argument of periapsis
- 41.82011090424149
- absolute magnitude
- 9.11
- Commons category
- 2674 Pandarus
- rotation period
- 8.48
- asteroid spectral type
- D-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2463127.3588086725
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2674 Pandarus /ˈpændərəs/ is a large Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp, approximately 98 kilometers (60 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 27 January 1982, by astronomers at Harvard's Oak Ridge Observatory near Harvard, Massachusetts, in the United States. The likely elongated D-type asteroid has a rotation period of 8.48 hours and belongs to the 50 largest Jupiter trojans. It was named after Pandarus from Greek mythology.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “2674 Pandarus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.