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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
- Karl Theodor Robert Luther
- Discovery date
- August 25, 1865
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ k l aɪ . oʊ /
- Named after
- Clio
- Minor planet category
- Main belt · Klio
- Adjectives
- Klionian / k l aɪ ˈ oʊ n i ə n / , Klioian / k l aɪ ˈ oʊ . i ə n /
- Aphelion
- 436.886 million km (2.920 AU)
- Perihelion
- 269.828 million km (1.804 AU)
- Semi major axis
- 353.357 million km (2.362 AU )
- Orbital period sidereal
- 1325.961 d (3.63 a )
- Mean anomaly
- 326.072°
- Inclination
- 9.334°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 327.651°
- Argument of perihelion
- 14.690°
- Dimensions
- 79.16 ± 1.6 km
- Mass
- (3.93 ± 1.48/1.28) × 10 kg
- Mean density
- 1.521 ± 0.572/0.497 g/cm
- Synodic rotation period
- 23.562 ± 0.001 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 79.16
- Orbital period
- 1326.25700441763
Show 17 more facts
- provisional designation
- A865 QA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1865-08-25
- orbital inclination
- 9.313668686316293
- density
- 2
- rotation period
- 23.562
- apparent magnitude
- 14.77
- albedo
- 0.0527
- Commons category
- 84 Klio
- absolute magnitude
- 9.32
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.235450193810113
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.362396782524065
- periapsis
- 1.806170002222387
- apoapsis
- 2.918623562825744
- longitude of ascending node
- 327.4950609824037
- argument of periapsis
- 15.09328079542107
- mean anomaly
- 38.88991575301606
- time of periapsis
- 2460857.2277134205
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
84 Klio is a fairly large and very dark main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by R. Luther on August 25, 1865, and named after Clio, the Muse of history in Greek mythology. The name Clio had previously been suggested by the discoverer of 12 Victoria, and that is the name B. A. Gould, editor of the prestigious Astronomical Journal, adopted for that asteroid, because of the controversy over the name Victoria. An occultation by Klio over a dim star was observed on April 2, 1997.
Photometric observations of this asteroid during 2007 at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico were used to create a light curve plot. This showed a synodic rotation period of 23.562 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.21 ± 0.02 magnitude during each cycle.