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
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Epeigeus
- Followed by
- 5260 Philvéron
- Follows
- 5258 Rhoeo
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- 44.741
- Orbital period
- 4349.129676300132
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Eugene Merle Shoemaker
- site of astronomical discovery
- Palomar Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1989 BB1
- time of discovery or invention
- 1989-01-30
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.07196827733723735
- mean anomaly
- 259.4784047531373
- longitude of ascending node
- 67.46925809434408
- argument of periapsis
- 200.1931402245096
- absolute magnitude
- 10.37
- orbital inclination
- 15.90764188345674
- periapsis
- 4.839109416114389
- apoapsis
- 5.589649209139788
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 5.214379312627088
- Commons category
- 5259 Epeigeus
- albedo
- 0.073
- rotation period
- 18.42
- time of periapsis
- 2462214.892924992
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
Article · Deutsch
(5259) Epeigeus ist ein Asteroid aus der Gruppe der Jupiter-Trojaner. Damit werden Asteroiden bezeichnet, die auf den Lagrange-Punkten auf der Bahn des Jupiter um die Sonne laufen. (5259) Epeigeus wurde am 30. Januar 1989 von den US-amerikanischen Astronomen Carolyn und Eugene Shoemaker am Palomar-Observatorium entdeckt. Er ist dem Lagrangepunkt L4 zugeordnet. Der Asteroid ist nach der mythologischen Figur des Myrmidonen benannt, einem Gefolgsmann des Achilles, der im Trojanischen Krieg von Hektor getötet wurde.
Abstract from DBpedia / Wikipedia · CC BY-SA