File:000746-asteroid_shape_model_(746)_Marlu.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
- F. Kaiser
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 1 March 1913
- Named after
- Marie-Louise Kaiser, (Discoverer's daughter)
- Alternative designations
- A913 EJ · 1926 WA, 1975 XN · 1913 QY
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) background
- Observation arc
- 104.37 yr (38,122 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.8461 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3728 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1094 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.48 yr (2,003 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 60.352 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 47.28 / day
- Inclination
- 17.480°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 1.9385°
- Argument of perihelion
- 306.79°
- Dimensions
- 72.0 km × 65.0 km
- Mean diameter
- 69.75 ± 4.0 km 71.55 ± 1.41 km 74.274 ± 1.122 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 74.274
- Orbital period
- 2004.242715097008
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- A913 EJ
- time of discovery or invention
- 1913-03-01
- orbital inclination
- 17.47689355390236
- Commons category
- 746 Marlu
- albedo
- 0.032
- rotation period
- 7.787
- absolute magnitude
- 9.96
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2353839729033986
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.111008931221762
- periapsis
- 2.378727289252828
- apoapsis
- 3.843290573190697
- longitude of ascending node
- 1.903216220186124
- argument of periapsis
- 306.9775847082294
- mean anomaly
- 59.23761048425191
- time of periapsis
- 2460670.7040297976
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
746 Marlu (prov. designation: A913 EJ or 1913 QY) is a dark and large background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 72 kilometers (45 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 1 March 1913, by German astronomer Franz Kaiser at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The primitive P-type asteroid has a rotation period of 7.8 hours. It was named after the discoverer's daughter, Marie-Louise Kaiser.
Orbit and classification