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
- 24 November 1924
- Named after
- Edward Tuck , (American philanthropist)
- Alternative designations
- 1924 TK · 1932 VA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Hilda
- Observation arc
- 92.34 yr (33,728 days)
- Aphelion
- 4.8595 AU
- Perihelion
- 3.1044 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.9820 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 7.95 yr (2,902 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 340.94 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 7 26.4 / day
- Inclination
- 9.1840°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 57.769°
- Argument of perihelion
- 305.02°
- Jupiter moid
- 0.7613 AU
- Dimensions
- 52.69 ± 2.41 km , 58.3 km (DASTCOM) , 58.36 km (derived)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 1039 Sonneberga
- Follows
- Q121512
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- 58.3
- Orbital period
- 2896.011337220487
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A924 WO
- time of discovery or invention
- 1924-11-24
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2214227831589381
- orbital inclination
- 9.187102526120144
- periapsis
- 3.095776350458686
- apoapsis
- 4.85661753802227
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.976196944240478
- mean anomaly
- 352.5526000810682
- longitude of ascending node
- 57.68758961873954
- argument of periapsis
- 305.4003908643198
- absolute magnitude
- 10.64
- albedo
- 0.0244
- rotation period
- 68.98
- asteroid spectral type
- D-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2461060.410429439
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1038 Tuckia, provisional designation 1924 TK, is rare-type Hilda asteroid from the outermost regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 58 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 24 November 1924, by German astronomer by Max Wolf at Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named after American banker Edward Tuck and his wife.
Classification and orbit
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q121528” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.