File:326_Tamara.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
- Johann Palisa
- Discovery date
- 19 March 1892
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ t æ m ə r ə /
- Named after
- Tamar of Georgia
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 122.57 yr (44770 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.75738 AU (412.498 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.87764 AU (280.891 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.31751 AU (346.695 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.53 yr (1288.6 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 26.2160 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 16 45.714 / day
- Inclination
- 23.7294°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 32.2069°
- Time of perihelion
- 2023-May-19
- Argument of perihelion
- 238.542°
- Dimensions
- 93.00 ± 1.7 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 14.445 h (0.6019 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 93.0
- Orbital period
- 1288.985387764067
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- A892 FD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1892-03-19
- orbital inclination
- 23.69582587424989
- Commons category
- 326 Tamara
- albedo
- 0.0368
- rotation period
- 14.445
- absolute magnitude
- 9.37
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1900615532960136
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.317926771446415
- periapsis
- 1.877378008838895
- apoapsis
- 2.758475534053934
- longitude of ascending node
- 32.08502725989799
- argument of periapsis
- 239.0502012995973
- mean anomaly
- 255.4255238813116
- time of periapsis
- 2461374.9304768057
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
326 Tamara is a large Main belt asteroid. It is classified as a C-type asteroid and is probably composed of carbonaceous material. It is the largest member and namesake of the Tamara Family, a 264 million year-old sub-family of the collisional Phocaea family.
It was discovered by Johann Palisa on 19 March 1892 in Vienna and is named after Tamar of Georgia. Name was given by Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia.