Image by b1-foto on Pixabay · Pixabay License
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
- Max Wolf
- Discovery date
- 25 September 1892
- Named after
- Heinrich Eduard von Lade
- Alternative designations
- 1892 H
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 116.98 yr (42727 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.0610 AU (457.92 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.43203 AU (363.827 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.74650 AU (410.871 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.55 yr (1662.5 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 23.6445 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 59.544 / day
- Inclination
- 4.6773°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 27.051°
- Argument of perihelion
- 41.720°
- Dimensions
- 30.24 ± 1.2 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.0062 h (0.33359 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.2118 ± 0.018
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Heinrich Eduard von Lade
- Followed by
- Q151526
- Follows
- Q151462
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 28.025
- Orbital period
- 1662.924614188399
- Image
- 340Eduarda (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1959 JT
- time of discovery or invention
- 1892-09-25
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 4.665338951878603
- Commons category
- 340 Eduarda
- albedo
- 0.247
- rotation period
- 8.0062
- absolute magnitude
- 9.99
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1182963488196325
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.746941579690549
- periapsis
- 2.421988420392323
- apoapsis
- 3.071894738988774
- longitude of ascending node
- 26.89495908721384
- argument of periapsis
- 42.97022423441605
- mean anomaly
- 38.54566079799292
- time of periapsis
- 2460822.4485330246
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
340 Eduarda is a main belt asteroid that was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf on 25 September 1892 in Heidelberg. It was named after German banker and amateur astronomer Heinrich Eduard von Lade.
Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Oakley Observatory in Terre Haute, Indiana, during 2006 gave a light curve with a period of 8.04 ± 0.02 hours and a brightness variation of 0.25 ± 0.03 in magnitude.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “340 Eduarda” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.