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
Small body data
(393) Lampetia
- Orbit class
- Main-belt
- Semi-major axis
- 2.778 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.334
- Inclination
- 14.832 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 8.360 H
via Minor Planet Center
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Max Wolf
- Discovery date
- 4 November 1894
- Pronunciation
- / l æ m ˈ p iː ʃ i ə /
- Named after
- Lampetia
- Alternative designations
- 1894 BG
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 112.56 yr (41112 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.6980 AU (553.21 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.8568 AU (277.77 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.7774 AU (415.49 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.63 yr (1690.6 d ), (4.63 yr )
- Mean anomaly
- 173.245 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 46.584 / day
- Inclination
- 14.879°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 212.460°
- Time of perihelion
- 2023-Aug-15
- Argument of perihelion
- 90.824°
- Dimensions
- 96.89 ± 31.4 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Lampetia
- Followed by
- 394 Arduina
- Follows
- 392 Wilhelmina
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 116.191
- Orbital period
- 1693.665126052613
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A907 GR
- time of discovery or invention
- 1894-11-04
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 14.82555335815421
- argument of periapsis
- 91.49270560228518
- Commons category
- 393 Lampetia
- albedo
- 0.022
- rotation period
- 38.455
- absolute magnitude
- 8.39
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.3329062052280902
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.780691091389409
- periapsis
- 1.854981772243405
- apoapsis
- 3.706400410535414
- longitude of ascending node
- 212.0230838388785
- mean anomaly
- 175.5324143111013
- time of periapsis
- 2460174.6857538596
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
393 Lampetia is a fairly large main belt asteroid that was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf on 4 November 1894 in Heidelberg. It has an unusually low rotation rate, with a period estimated at 38.7 hours and a brightness variation of 0.14 in magnitude.
In 2000, the asteroid was detected by radar from the Arecibo Observatory at a distance of 0.98 AU. The resulting data yielded an effective diameter of 125 ± 20 km.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “393 Lampetia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.