File:000936-asteroid_shape_model_(936)_Kunigunde.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 8 September 1920
- Named after
- Name picked from the almanac , Lahrer Hinkender Bote
- Alternative designations
- A920 RB · 1930 KD, 1930 KR · 1931 TO 2 , 1942 RD 1 · 1984 BK 7 , A913 HA · A921 WD, 1920 HN · 1913 HA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Themis
- Observation arc
- 98.95 yr (36,140 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.6843 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.5802 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1323 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.54 yr (2,025 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 8.7542 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 40.08 / day
- Inclination
- 2.3660°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 62.161°
- Argument of perihelion
- 253.49°
- Mean diameter
- 38.08 ± 0.94 km 39.56 ± 1.2 km 43.227 ± 1.035 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 9.3650 ± 0.0006 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 937 Bethgea
- Follows
- 935 Clivia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 43.227
- Orbital period
- 2027.437168053317
- Image
- 936Kunigunde (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A920 RB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1920-09-08
- orbital inclination
- 2.365192163561687
- Commons category
- 936 Kunigunde
- albedo
- 0.065
- rotation period
- 8.83
- absolute magnitude
- 10.53
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1743497584912019
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.134964673924299
- periapsis
- 2.588384340147148
- apoapsis
- 3.68154500770145
- longitude of ascending node
- 62.14735219705891
- argument of periapsis
- 253.5335242518612
- mean anomaly
- 4.084915941104768
- time of periapsis
- 2460977.494693313
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
936 Kunigunde (prov. designation: A920 RB or 1920 HN) is a dark Themistian asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 8 September 1920, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory. The carbonaceous B-type asteroid has a rotation period of 9.4 hours. It was named "Kunigunde", a common German female name unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries, that was taken from the almanac Lahrer Hinkender Bote.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “936 Kunigunde” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.