File:000749-asteroid_shape_model_(749)_Malzovia.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
- S. Belyavskyj
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 5 April 1913
- Named after
- Nikolai Maltsov , (Russian amateur astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- A913 GD · 1950 JO, 1968 XA · 1913 RF
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) background
- Observation arc
- 107.00 yr (39,080 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.6316 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8558 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2437 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.36 yr (1,228 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 289.14 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 35.88 / day
- Inclination
- 5.3946°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 109.76°
- Argument of perihelion
- 128.97°
- Mean diameter
- 11.065 ± 0.071 km 12.13 ± 0.26 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 5.9274 ± 0.0002 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 750 Oskar
- Follows
- 748 Simeïsa
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 11.065
- Orbital period
- 1226.808803214298
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Grigory Neujmin
- site of astronomical discovery
- Simeiz Observatory
- provisional designation
- A913 GD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1913-04-05
- orbital inclination
- 5.393283633553811
- Commons category
- 749 Malzovia
- albedo
- 0.27
- rotation period
- 5.9274
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 11.6
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1741089895032695
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.242774646072179
- periapsis
- 1.852287418760999
- apoapsis
- 2.633261873383359
- longitude of ascending node
- 109.7095992620289
- argument of periapsis
- 128.7650057598143
- mean anomaly
- 156.0711661544167
- time of periapsis
- 2460468.6403317605
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
749 Malzovia (prov. designation: A913 GD or 1913 RF) is a stony background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 5 April 1913, by Russian astronomer Sergey Belyavsky at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The elongated S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 5.9 hours. It was named after Russian amateur astronomer Nikolai Maltsov (S. I. Maltsov) who founded the discovering Simeïs Observatory in 1900.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “749 Malzovia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.