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
- 26 April 1917
- Named after
- unknown
- Alternative designations
- A917 HB · 1925 FB, 1957 EO · 1917 BU
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) background
- Observation arc
- 102.77 yr (37,538 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1052 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3031 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.7041 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.45 yr (1,624 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 224.48 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 18.12 / day
- Inclination
- 5.8386°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 115.78°
- Argument of perihelion
- 286.74°
- Dimensions
- 43.3 km × 64.3 km
- Mean diameter
- 50.692 ± 0.191 km 52.47 ± 1.5 km 55.45 ± 0.73 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q157526
- Follows
- 867 Kovacia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 50.692
- Orbital period
- 1624.494505550421
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A917 HB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1917-04-26
- orbital inclination
- 5.836972363334934
- Commons category
- 868 Lova
- albedo
- 0.056
- rotation period
- 41.118
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 10.45
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.146112401206365
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.704455749920558
- periapsis
- 2.309301226343305
- apoapsis
- 3.099610273497811
- longitude of ascending node
- 115.7397540617088
- argument of periapsis
- 287.1177657501469
- mean anomaly
- 307.1392977688768
- time of periapsis
- 2461239.033112039
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
868 Lova (prov. designation: A917 HB or 1917 BU) is a large and dark background asteroid, approximately 51 kilometers (32 miles) in diameter, from the central regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory on 26 April 1917. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid (Ch) and has a long rotation period of 41.1 hours and is likely elongated in shape. The origin of the asteroid's name remains unknown.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “868 Lova” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.