2839 Annette

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

C. W. Tombaugh

Discovery site

Lowell Obs.

Discovery date

5 October 1929

Named after

Annette Tombaugh, (discoverer's daughter)

Alternative designations

1929 TP · 1937 AB 1 , 1939 UL · 1962 TE, 1970 BB · 1972 XF 1 , 1982 VP

Minor planet category

main-belt · Flora

Observation arc

87.67 yr (32,023 days)

Aphelion

2.5493 AU

Perihelion

1.8838 AU

Semi major axis

2.2166 AU

Orbital period sidereal

3.30 yr (1,205 days)

Mean anomaly

200.55 °

Mean motion

0° 17 55.32 / day

Inclination

4.8085°

Longitude of ascending node

44.569°

Argument of perihelion

6.8264°

Mean diameter

5.41 ± 0.86 km , 7.313 ± 0.150 km , 7.562 ± 0.122 km

Synodic rotation period

10.457 ± 0.003 h , 10.4595 ± 0.0001 h

via Wikipedia infobox