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
- B. Jekhovsky
- Discovery site
- Algiers Obs.
- Discovery date
- 20 January 1925
- Named after
- Dorothea Klumpke , (American astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1925 BD · 1930 DC 1 , 1936 BB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Tirela
- Observation arc
- 93.10 yr (34,005 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.7117 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.5142 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1129 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.49 yr (2,006 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 4.1328 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 46.2 / day
- Inclination
- 16.688°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 280.17°
- Argument of perihelion
- 158.00°
- Mean diameter
- 22.340 ± 0.175 km , 22.669 ± 0.304 km , 23.13 ± 0.38 km , 34.98 ± 4.3 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 59.2 ± 0.1 h
via Wikipedia infobox
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1040 Klumpkea, provisional designation 1925 BD, is a Tirela asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 23 kilometers (14 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 20 January 1925, by Russian–French astronomer Benjamin Jekhowsky at the Algiers Observatory in North Africa. This highly elongated asteroid is the largest member of the stony Tirela family – also known as the Klumpkea family – and has a longer than average rotation period of 59.2 hours. It was named after American astronomer Dorothea Klumpke.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q121566” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.