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
- August Kopff
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 22 October 1906
- Named after
- Triberg im Schwarzwald
- Alternative designations
- 1906 WC
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 109.47 yr (39985 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.7084 AU (405.17 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.3342 AU (349.19 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.5213 AU (377.18 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.00 yr (1462.3 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 188.954 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 46.284 / day
- Inclination
- 13.799°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 187.484°
- Argument of perihelion
- 178.250°
- Mean diameter
- 43 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 26.311 h 29.37 ± 0.06 h 29.412 ± 0.003 h
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
619 Triberga is a main belt asteroid discovered on 22 October 1906 by August Kopff at Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory. Since it has an orbit that repeats itself almost exactly every four years with respect to the position of the Sun and Earth, it has been suggested as a way to calculate the mass of the Moon. Triberga was named for the German town of Triberg.
Since it has an absolute magnitude of 9.9, it is roughly 43 km in diameter. It has an opposition apparent magnitude of 13.5.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “619 Triberga” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.