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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
- A. Kopff
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 18 September 1906
- Pronunciation
- German: [ ˈbʁaŋɡɛːnə ]
- Named after
- Brangaine , (opera character)
- Alternative designations
- 1906 VB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , Brangäne
- Observation arc
- 111.68 yr (40,792 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1564 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0181 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.5872 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.16 yr (1,520 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 276.59 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 12.48 / day
- Inclination
- 8.5990°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 318.48°
- Argument of perihelion
- 58.344°
- Mean diameter
- 28.15 ± 4.91 km , 35.54 ± 2.2 km , 35.758 ± 0.165 km , 36.18 ± 0.53 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 607 Jenny
- Follows
- 605 Juvisia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 35.758
- Orbital period
- 1519.497697110894
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- August Kopff
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A906 SK
- time of discovery or invention
- 1906-09-18
- orbital inclination
- 8.597833074877114
- Commons category
- 606 Brangäne
- albedo
- 0.096
- rotation period
- 12.295
- asteroid spectral type
- K-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 10.35
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2207168721361538
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.586630611310758
- periapsis
- 2.01571759341062
- apoapsis
- 3.157543629210895
- longitude of ascending node
- 318.413417387807
- argument of periapsis
- 58.21203190518396
- mean anomaly
- 220.1682309963912
- time of periapsis
- 2461590.7056971774
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
606 Brangäne, provisional designation 1906 VB, is an asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 36 kilometers (22 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 18 September 1906, by astronomer August Kopff at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The unusual K-type asteroid is the namesake of the small Brangäne family and has a rotation period of 12.3 hours. It was named after Brangaine, a character from the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “606 Brangäne” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.