File:683Lanzia_(Lightcurve_Inversion).png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
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
- Discovery date
- 23 July 1909
- Alternative designations
- 1909 HC
- Observation arc
- 101.75 yr (37,164 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2891 AU (492.04 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.9402 AU (439.85 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.1146 AU (465.94 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.50 yr (2007.7 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 278.966 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 45.516 / day
- Inclination
- 18.509°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 259.724°
- Argument of perihelion
- 283.703°
- Mean radius
- 41.52 ± 11.1 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.630 h (0.3596 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.1474 ± 0.128
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q156483
- Follows
- 682 Hagar
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 83.04
- Orbital period
- 2007.221283331487
- Image
- 683Lanzia (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A909 OA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1909-07-23
- orbital inclination
- 18.52747087577934
- Commons category
- 683 Lanzia
- albedo
- 0.053
- rotation period
- 8.63
- absolute magnitude
- 8.84
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.05909607468594135
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.114090413870176
- periapsis
- 2.93005989419333
- apoapsis
- 3.298120933547022
- longitude of ascending node
- 259.6348724916485
- argument of periapsis
- 280.1272500378715
- mean anomaly
- 172.0475219736006
- time of periapsis
- 2460041.229311528
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
683 Lanzia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It was discovered July 23, 1909, by Max Wolf at the Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl observatory and was named in honor of Lanz, founder of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. Photometric observations made in 2003 at the Santana Observatory in Rancho Cucamonga, California, give a synodic rotation period of 8.63 ± 0.005 hours. The light curve shows a brightness variation of 0.15 ± 0.04 in magnitude.
Observations during two last occultation 18 and 22 December 2010 (P.Baruffetti, G. Tonlorenzi - Massa, G. Bonatti - Carrara, R. Di Luca - Bologna (Italy), C. Schnabel - S. Estebe, J. Rovira - Moja (Spain)) measured a 122.5 km diameter (medium) and an Albedo of 0.0705 compatible with carbonaceous asteroids (C group).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “683 Lanzia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.