File:000732-asteroid_shape_model_(732)_Tjilaki.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
Small body data
(732) Tjilaki
- Orbit class
- Main-belt
- Semi-major axis
- 2.456 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.045
- Inclination
- 11.004 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 10.650 H
via Minor Planet Center
Key facts
- Discovered by
- A. Massinger
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 15 April 1912
- Pronunciation
- Malay: [ tʃiˈlaki ]
- Named after
- Cilaki River , (River in Indonesia)
- Alternative designations
- A912 HK · 1958 FC, 1912 OR
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) background
- Observation arc
- 106.66 yr (38,959 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.5633 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3490 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4561 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.85 yr (1,406 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 359.80 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 21.96 / day
- Inclination
- 10.994°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 173.35°
- Argument of perihelion
- 64.900°
- Mean diameter
- 29.791 ± 0.431 km 36.49 ± 0.43 km 37.61 ± 1.6 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 733 Mocia
- Follows
- 731 Sorga
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 29.791
- Orbital period
- 1405.447549086924
- Image
- 732Tjilaki (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Adam Massinger
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A912 HK
- time of discovery or invention
- 1912-04-15
- orbital inclination
- 11.00404344260729
- Commons category
- 732 Tjilaki
- albedo
- 0.138
- rotation period
- 12.322
- absolute magnitude
- 10.66
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.04489049198501219
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.455523776772686
- periapsis
- 2.345294106352465
- apoapsis
- 2.565753447192907
- longitude of ascending node
- 173.290451604367
- argument of periapsis
- 62.97130222787182
- mean anomaly
- 153.8205211419833
- time of periapsis
- 2460399.9814598938
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
732 Tjilaki (provisional designation A912 HK or 1912 OR) is a dark background asteroid, approximately 36 kilometers (22 miles) in diameter, located in the inner region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered by German astronomer Adam Massinger at the Heidelberg Observatory on 15 April 1912, and later named after the Cilaki (Tjilaki in pre-reform spelling) river in Indonesia. The dark D-type asteroid has a rotation period of 12.3 hours. It was an early candidate to be visited by the Rosetta spacecraft which eventually rendezvoused comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “732 Tjilaki” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.