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
- Franz Kaiser
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 25 January 1914
- Pronunciation
- / θ iː oʊ ˈ b ɔː l d ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1914 UA
- Minor planet category
- main belt,Theobalda family
- Observation arc
- 92.58 yr (33816 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.9839 AU (595.98 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.3909 AU (357.67 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.1874 AU (476.83 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.69 yr (2078.5 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 24.214 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 23.52 / day
- Inclination
- 13.687°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 321.708°
- Argument of perihelion
- 134.392°
- Earth moid
- 1.42779 AU (213.594 Gm)
- Jupiter moid
- 1.30066 AU (194.576 Gm)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 779 Nina
- Follows
- Q157047
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 55.317
- Orbital period
- 2069.765365612735
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Franz Kaiser
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A914 BG
- time of discovery or invention
- 1914-01-25
- orbital inclination
- 13.7172494179575
- Commons category
- 778 Theobalda
- albedo
- 0.079
- rotation period
- 11.659
- asteroid spectral type
- F-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 9.88
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2568623367512992
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.17844810983174
- periapsis
- 2.362024501097609
- apoapsis
- 3.994871718565871
- longitude of ascending node
- 321.1872361955008
- argument of periapsis
- 135.1838837105765
- mean anomaly
- 254.0905109291396
- time of periapsis
- 2461609.410534357
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
778 Theobalda is a minor planet orbiting the Sun, in the main asteroid belt. It was discovered by Franz Kaiser on 25 January 1914 and was named after his father, Theobald Kaiser. This is an F-type asteroid that spans ~64 km in girth. It rotates on its axis once every 11.7 hours. 778 Theobalda is orbiting 3.19 AU from the Sun with an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.25 and a period of 5.69 yr. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 13.7° to the plane of the ecliptic.
778 Theobalda is the namesake and largest member of a family of 128 minor planets in the outer belt. The Theobalda asteroid family was likely formed 6.9±2.3 million years ago from a collision-shattered parent body that had a diameter of around 78±9 km.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “778 Theobalda” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.