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
- Ignacio R. Ferrín et al.
- Discovery site
- Llano del Hato Obs.
- Discovery date
- 10 March 2000
- Pronunciation
- / h uː ˈ j ɑː / hoo- YAH
- Named after
- Huya
- Alternative designations
- 2000 EB 173
- Minor planet category
- TNO · plutino , Kozai res. · distant
- Observation arc
- 28 yr
- Earliest precovery date
- 9 April 1996
- Aphelion
- 50.295 AU
- Perihelion
- 28.532 AU
- Semi major axis
- 39.413 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 247.28 yr (90,318 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 11.695 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 0 14.349 / day
- Inclination
- 15.474°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 169.323°
- Time of perihelion
- 14 December 2014
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- trans-Neptunian object
- Subclass of
- trans-Neptunian object
- Named after
- Huya
- Follows
- (38627) 2000 EV119
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- trans-Neptunian object
- Diameter
- 187.5
- Radius
- 203
- Orbital period
- 89690.89467814863
- Image
- Huya Hubble.png
Show 23 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Ignacio Ramón Ferrín Vázquez
- Commons category
- 38628 Huya
- time of discovery or invention
- 2000-03-10
- provisional designation
- 2000 EB173
- orbital inclination
- 15.47697092046428
- albedo
- 0.08
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2728716065416072
- absolute magnitude
- 4.79
- periapsis
- 28.51309688915807
- apoapsis
- 49.9134840164317
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 39.21329045279489
- mean anomaly
- 16.02947421759907
- longitude of ascending node
- 169.3125384076835
- argument of periapsis
- 67.50502575417357
- rotation period
- 5.28
- site of astronomical discovery
- Mérida
- volume as quantity
- 3.70
- flattening
- 0.14
- density
- 1.073
- color index
- 1.2
- time of periapsis
- 2457006.8947672313
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
- apparent magnitude
- 19.8
Sources (7)
via Wikidata · CC0
~21 min read
Encyclopedic overview
38628 Huya (/huːˈjɑː/ hoo-YAH; provisional designation 2000 EB173) is a binary trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy objects orbiting beyond Neptune in the outer Solar System. Huya is classified as a plutino, a dynamical class of trans-Neptunian objects with orbits in a 3:2 orbital resonance with Neptune. It was discovered by the Quasar Equatorial Survey Team and was identified by Venezuelan astronomer Ignacio Ferrín in March 2000. It is named after Juyá, the mythological rain god of the Wayuu people native to South America.
Huya's surface is moderately red in color due to the presence of complex organic compounds on its surface. Water ice has been suspected to be also present on its surface, although it has not been directly detected on Huya. Huya is considered to be a mid-sized trans-Neptunian object, with an estimated diameter of about 400 km (250 mi).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “38628 Huya” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.