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 site
- Heidelberg Observatory
- Discovery date
- 3 September 1902
- Pronunciation
- / dʒ ɪ z ˈ m ɒ n d ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1902 JR
- Observation arc
- 113.62 yr (41499 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.6662 AU (548.46 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.5610 AU (383.12 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.1136 AU (465.79 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.49 yr (2,006.7 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 267.617 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 45.84 / day
- Inclination
- 1.6188°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 46.215°
- Argument of perihelion
- 296.611°
- Mean radius
- 25.845 ± 0.7 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 6.488 h (0.2703 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.0795 ± 0.005
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 493 Griseldis
- Follows
- 491 Carina
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 53.418
- Orbital period
- 2001.892218145708
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A902 RF
- time of discovery or invention
- 1902-09-03
- orbital inclination
- 1.612774164156228
- Commons category
- 492 Gismonda
- albedo
- 0.069
- rotation period
- 6.488
- absolute magnitude
- 9.99
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1830193474357117
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.108576143022175
- periapsis
- 2.539646565872035
- apoapsis
- 3.677505720172314
- longitude of ascending node
- 46.03803651047475
- argument of periapsis
- 296.3807620013268
- mean anomaly
- 157.8623282692591
- time of periapsis
- 2460122.657315276
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
492 Gismonda is a main belt asteroid discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf in 1902. Gismonda is named after the daughter of Tancred, prince of Salerno, from Giovanni Boccaccio's work, The Decameron. It is orbiting 3.11 AU (466 Gm) from the Sun with a period of 5.49 yr and an orbital eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.18. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 1.6° to the plane of the ecliptic.
This asteroid is a member of the Themis collisional family, which is one of the largest such groups in the belt. It has an estimated diameter of 50.3±1.1 km. The spectrum suggests the surface is covered with a fine grained silicate mantle. Photometric observations of Gismonda made in 1902 produce a light curve displaying a rotation period of 6.488±0.005 h with a brightness variation of 0.16±0.02 in magnitude
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “492 Gismonda” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.