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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 16 November 1916
- Pronunciation
- German: [ ˈnaːeːmaː ]
- Named after
- unknown
- Alternative designations
- A916 WM · 1916 AS
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Naëma
- Observation arc
- 103.21 yr (37,699 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1439 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7324 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.9381 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.04 yr (1,840 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 265.75 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 44.52 / day
- Inclination
- 12.610°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 43.144°
- Argument of perihelion
- 294.62°
- Dimensions
- 63.1 km × 42.5 km
via Wikipedia infobox
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
845 Naëma (prov. designation: A916 WM or 1916 AS) is a large asteroid and the parent body of the Naëma family located in the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 16 November 1916, by astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 20.9 hours and measures approximately 54 kilometers (34 miles) in diameter on average, as it is likely elongated in shape. Any reference of the asteroid's name to a person is unknown.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “845 Naëma” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.