File:753Tiflis_(Lightcurve_Inversion).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
- G. N. Neujmin
- Discovery site
- Simeis
- Discovery date
- 30 April 1913
- Pronunciation
- / t ɪ f ˈ l iː s /
- Alternative designations
- 1913 RM
- Observation arc
- 108.44 yr (39,609 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.8436 AU (425.40 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.8143 AU (271.42 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.3289 AU (348.40 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.55 yr (1,298.2 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 346.851 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 16 38.316 / day
- Inclination
- 10.089°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 61.355°
- Argument of perihelion
- 202.953°
- Mean radius
- 11.795 ± 0.9 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 9.85 h (0.410 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.2616 ± 0.046
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
753 Tiflis is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It was discovered 30 April 1913 by the Georgian–Russian astronomer Grigory N. Neujmin at Simeiz Observatory and was named after Georgia's capital city Tiflis (now called Tbilisi). The object is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.33 AU with a period of 3.55 years and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.22. The orbital plane is inclined by an angle of 10.1° to the plane of the ecliptic. In 1991, Ruth F. Wolfe included it as a member of the proposed Tiflis asteroid family.
This is classed as an S-type asteroid in the Tholen taxonomy. It spans a girth of approximately 23.6 km and rotates on its axis every 9.85 hours.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “753 Tiflis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.