File:70_Panopaea.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
- Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt
- Discovery site
- Paris Observatory
- Discovery date
- 5 May 1861
- Pronunciation
- / p æ n ə ˈ p iː ə /
- Named after
- Panopea
- Minor planet category
- main belt
- Adjectives
- Panopaean
- Aphelion
- 3.0903 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1402 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.61526 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 1544.79 days (4.23 years)
- Mean anomaly
- 264.193°
- Inclination
- 11.584°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 47.783°
- Argument of perihelion
- 256.016°
- Dimensions
- 122.17 ± 2.3 km (mean)
- Mass
- (4.33 ± 1.09) × 10 kg
- Mean density
- 3.48 ± 1.05 g/cm
via Wikipedia infobox
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
70 Panopaea is a large main belt asteroid. Its orbit is close to those of the Eunomia asteroid family; however, Panopaea is a dark, primitive carbonaceous C-type asteroid in contrast to the S-type asteroids of the Eunomian asteroids. The spectra of the asteroid displays evidence of aqueous alteration. Photometric studies give a rotation period of 15.797 hours and an amplitude of 0.11±0.01 in magnitude. Previous studies that suggested the rotation period may be twice this amount were rejected based upon further observation.
Panopaea was discovered by Hermann Goldschmidt on 5 May 1861. It was his fourteenth and last asteroid discovery. It is named after Panopea, a nymph in Greek mythology; the name was chosen by Robert Main, President of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1862, Swedish astronomer Nils Christoffer Dunér gave a doctoral thesis on the orbital elements of this asteroid.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “70 Panopaea” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.