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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
- Simeiz Observatory
- Discovery date
- 25 January 1914
- Pronunciation
- / ɑːr ˈ m iː i ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1914 UC
- Observation arc
- 107.14 yr (39134 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.4169 AU (511.16 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.8119 AU (420.65 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.1144 AU (465.91 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.50 yr (2007.5 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 346.438 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 45.552 / day
- Inclination
- 19.085°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 144.857°
- Argument of perihelion
- 214.403°
- Mean radius
- 47.20 ± 0.85 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 19.891 h (0.8288 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.0498 ± 0.002
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 781 Kartvelia
- Follows
- 779 Nina
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 126.263
- Orbital period
- 2007.582279001166
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Grigory Neujmin
- site of astronomical discovery
- Simeiz Observatory
- provisional designation
- A914 BJ
- time of discovery or invention
- 1914-01-25
- orbital inclination
- 19.07594004850355
- Commons category
- 780 Armenia
- albedo
- 0.028
- rotation period
- 19.891
- absolute magnitude
- 8.98
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.09576308697490675
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.114463778936142
- periapsis
- 2.816213113193684
- apoapsis
- 3.4127144446786
- longitude of ascending node
- 144.7768156843394
- argument of periapsis
- 211.6502734184871
- mean anomaly
- 239.0806660306929
- time of periapsis
- 2461674.8208668483
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
780 Armenia is a minor planet in the asteroid belt orbiting the Sun. It is named after the Kingdom of Armenia, now Armenia. This object is orbiting at a distance of 3.11 AU with an eccentricity of 0.097 and a period of 5.50 yr. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 19.1° to the plane of rotation. This asteroid spans a girth of ~94 km. The long rotation period of this asteroid necessitated light curve data from more than one latitude. The overlapping data provided a solution with a period of 19.891±0.002 h and a brightness amplitude of 0.18±0.03 in magnitude.
This object is the namesake of the Armenia family, a family of 13–76 asteroids that share similar spectral properties and orbital elements; hence they may have arisen from the same collisional event. All members have a relatively high orbital inclination.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “780 Armenia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.