Image by wydawca 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
- Raymond Smith Dugan
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Observatory
- Discovery date
- 20 April 1903
- Pronunciation
- / p r ɪ n ˈ s t oʊ n i ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1903 LQ
- Observation arc
- 107.99 yr (39445 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1869 AU (476.75 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 3.1353 AU (469.03 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.1611 AU (472.89 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.62 yr (2052.8 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 25.2307 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 31.332 / day
- Inclination
- 13.337°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 44.223°
- Argument of perihelion
- 195.015°
- Mean radius
- 71.175 ± 1.3 km , 69.845 ± 1.7 km
- Mass
- (2.99 ± 0.65) × 10 kg
- Mean density
- 2.09 ± 0.47 g/cm
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Princeton University
- Followed by
- 509 Iolanda
- Follows
- 507 Laodica
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 117.241
- Orbital period
- 2056.153235864669
- Image
- 000508-asteroid shape model (508) Princetonia.png
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Raymond Smith Dugan
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A920 GF
- time of discovery or invention
- 1903-04-20
- orbital inclination
- 13.29835660526151
- albedo
- 0.065
- Commons category
- 508 Princetonia
- rotation period
- 52.8
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 8.38
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.009215749347839884
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.164497088592539
- periapsis
- 3.135333876612102
- apoapsis
- 3.193660300572978
- longitude of ascending node
- 44.04320559772902
- argument of periapsis
- 245.0185413077494
- mean anomaly
- 210.7943909954078
- time of periapsis
- 2461852.6933215666
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
508 Princetonia is a large asteroid, a type of minor planet, orbiting in the asteroid belt. It was discovered by Raymond Smith Dugan at Heidelberg, Germany in 1903 and named "Princetonia" for Princeton University in New Jersey in the United States.
Dugan found it during his time at Königstuhl Observatory with Max Wolf in Heidelberg, Germany. At the time he was working on his PhD from Heidelberg University. The asteroid is located in the outer areas of the main asteroid belt and is about 140 km (87 mi) in diameter according to data from IRAS, an infrared space observatory in the 1980s.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “508 Princetonia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.