Image by Erik_Karits on Pixabay · Pixabay License
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
- 18 May 1911
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ ʌ l j ʊ l ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1911 LW
- Observation arc
- 104.92 yr (38323 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.6801 AU (400.94 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.3892 AU (357.42 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.5347 AU (379.19 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.04 yr (1474.0 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 128.475 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 39.264 / day
- Inclination
- 14.271°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 233.847°
- Argument of perihelion
- 232.003°
- Mean radius
- 19.59 ± 1.2 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 6.998 h (0.2916 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.2711 ± 0.037
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 41.343
- Orbital period
- 1474.411124755311
- Image
- 714Ulula (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- A911 KG
- time of discovery or invention
- 1911-05-18
- orbital inclination
- 14.27189089603214
- Commons category
- 714 Ulula
- albedo
- 0.26
- rotation period
- 6.998
- absolute magnitude
- 9.02
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.0558299124908347
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.53520713316441
- periapsis
- 2.393666740773701
- apoapsis
- 2.676747525555119
- longitude of ascending node
- 233.6791977715791
- argument of periapsis
- 233.5886831461436
- mean anomaly
- 237.0987279836135
- time of periapsis
- 2461503.8527852986
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
714 Ulula is a main belt asteroid. It is orbiting the Sun near the 3:1 Kirkwood Gap with a period of 4.04 years and an eccentricity of 0.057. It was discovered by German astronomer J. Helffrich on 18 May 1911 from the Heidelberg Observatory and was named after an order of owls. The asteroid has a mean radius of 20 km and is spinning with a rotation period of seven hours. Its pole of rotation lies just 4–14° away from the plane of the ecliptic. The surface spectrum shows a pyroxene chemistry and is consistent with mesosiderites/HED meteorites.
References