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. Shoemaker
- Discovery site
- Palomar Obs.
- Discovery date
- 12 October 1988
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ ɛ n ə m ə s /
- Named after
- Ennomus (or Ennomos), (Greek mythology)
- Alternative designations
- 1988 TU 2 · 1954 UM 1 , 1977 UT 2
- Minor planet category
- Jupiter trojan · Trojan , Ennomos · background
- Adjectives
- Ennomian
- Observation arc
- 66.80 yr (24,398 d)
- Aphelion
- 5.3542 AU
- Perihelion
- 5.1345 AU
- Semi major axis
- 5.2443 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 12.01 yr (4,387 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 204.60 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 4 55.56 / day
- Inclination
- 25.452°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 253.12°
- Argument of perihelion
- 86.215°
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Ennomus
- Followed by
- 4710 Wade
- Follows
- 4708 Polydoros
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 91.433
- Orbital period
- 4423.166984685817
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Carolyn S. Shoemaker
- site of astronomical discovery
- Palomar Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1988 TU2
- time of discovery or invention
- 1988-10-12
- orbital inclination
- 25.41650971419275
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.02299062767234684
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 5.273390578565236
- mean anomaly
- 77.0567596347256
- longitude of ascending node
- 253.0578413990369
- argument of periapsis
- 83.03249369602081
- absolute magnitude
- 8.61
- periapsis
- 5.152152019202581
- apoapsis
- 5.394629137927891
- Commons category
- 4709 Ennomos
- albedo
- 0.077
- rotation period
- 12.275
- time of periapsis
- 2460053.736346769
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
4709 Ennomos /ˈɛnəməs/ is a large Jupiter trojan from the L5 Trojan camp and the namesake of the small Ennomos family, approximately 81 kilometers (50 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 12 October 1988, by American astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California. The relatively bright and possibly elongated Jovian asteroid belongs to the 40 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 12.3 hours. It was named after Ennomus (Ennomos), a Trojan warrior killed by Achilles.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “4709 Ennomos” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.