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
- J. H. Metcalf
- Discovery site
- Taunton, MA , United States
- Discovery date
- 13 September 1907
- Pronunciation
- / æ ɡ r ɪ ˈ p aɪ n ə /
- Named after
- Agrippīna, ( the Elder , the Younger )
- Alternative designations
- 1907 AG
- Minor planet category
- main-belt (outer)
- Observation arc
- 108.28 yr (39551 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.6806 AU (550.61 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.7439 AU (410.48 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.2123 AU (480.55 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.76 yr (2102.9 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 322.43 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 16.284 / day
- Inclination
- 7.0434°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 0.16657°
- Argument of perihelion
- 84.246°
- Earth moid
- 1.76975 AU (264.751 Gm)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 28.916
- Orbital period
- 2106.316267891058
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A907 RP
- time of discovery or invention
- 1907-09-13
- orbital inclination
- 7.066385956572529
- albedo
- 0.213
- absolute magnitude
- 9.99
- rotation period
- 53.436
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1390487106343575
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.215758577698269
- periapsis
- 2.76861149375795
- apoapsis
- 3.662905661638589
- longitude of ascending node
- 359.2076286229864
- argument of periapsis
- 89.16374390350173
- mean anomaly
- 179.0818105595952
- time of periapsis
- 2459952.71408093
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
645 Agrippina, provisional designation 1907 AG, is a stony asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, roughly 30 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by American astronomer reverend Joel Metcalf at Taunton, Massachusetts, USA, on 13 September 1907.
The S-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.7–3.7 AU once every 5 years and 9 months (2,103 days). Its orbit shows an eccentricity of 0.15 and is tilted by 7 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. A photometric light-curve analysis from the 1980s and a provisional observation in 2004 rendered a rotation period of 32.6 and 34.4 hours, respectively.