File:000759-asteroid_shape_model_(759)_Vinifera.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
- 26 August 1913
- Pronunciation
- / v aɪ ˈ n ɪ f ə r ə /
- Named after
- Vitis vinifera , (common grape vine)
- Alternative designations
- A913 QC · 1913 SJ
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) background
- Observation arc
- 106.44 yr (38,879 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1565 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0806 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6185 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.24 yr (1,548 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 79.523 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 57.36 / day
- Inclination
- 19.905°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 318.35°
- Argument of perihelion
- 0.9245°
- Dimensions
- 59.0 km × 29.3 km
via Wikipedia infobox
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
759 Vinifera (prov. designation: A913 QC or 1913 SJ) is a large background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 50 kilometers (31 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 26 August 1913, by German astronomer Franz Kaiser at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The dark X-type asteroid has a rotation period of 14.2 hours and a heavily elongated shape. It was named after the plant species vitis vinifera, also known as the common grape vine.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “759 Vinifera” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.