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
- J. Helffrich
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 5 March 1910
- Named after
- Ernst Wolf, (son of Max Wolf )
- Alternative designations
- A910 ED · A908 WB, 1910 JX
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 111.16 yr (40,601 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1847 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.5490 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.8669 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.85 yr (1,773 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 269.92 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 10.8 / day
- Inclination
- 11.532°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 40.630°
- Argument of perihelion
- 98.687°
- Mean diameter
- 26.74 ± 0.63 km 27.03 ± 1.2 km 29.804 ± 0.438 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 5.0363 ± 0.0005 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 699 Hela
- Follows
- 697 Galilea
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 27.037
- Orbital period
- 1774.298972619371
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Joseph Helffrich
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A910 ED
- time of discovery or invention
- 1910-03-05
- orbital inclination
- 11.52669245064024
- Commons category
- 698 Ernestina
- albedo
- 0.095
- rotation period
- 5.0363
- absolute magnitude
- 11.02
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1116328235198836
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.8682626400351
- periapsis
- 2.548070382931386
- apoapsis
- 3.188454897138813
- longitude of ascending node
- 40.59889952443145
- argument of periapsis
- 97.61746887238527
- mean anomaly
- 317.0800450577436
- time of periapsis
- 2461212.0356443305
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
698 Ernestina (prov. designation: A910 ED or 1910 JX) is a background asteroid, approximately 27 kilometers (17 miles) in diameter, located in the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 5 March 1910, by German astronomer Joseph Helffrich at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory. The presumed carbonaceous C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 5.0 hours. It was named after Ernst Wolf, son of German astronomer and prolific discoverer of minor planets, Max Wolf.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “698 Ernestina” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.