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
- 14 September 1925
- Named after
- unknown
- Alternative designations
- 1925 RB · A906 DD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer )
- Observation arc
- 91.64 yr (33,470 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.5133 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.6726 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0930 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.44 yr (1,987 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 295.00 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 52.32 / day
- Inclination
- 15.110°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 342.86°
- Argument of perihelion
- 41.244°
- Dimensions
- 51.05 km (derived) , 53.56 ± 16.68 km , 53.84 ± 19.48 km , 54.77 ± 0.76 km , 56.296 ± 0.204 km , 63.874 ± 0.177 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.470 ± 0.007 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 56.296
- Orbital period
- 1984.582945034579
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A906 DD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1925-09-14
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1389426509310419
- albedo
- 0.008
- orbital inclination
- 15.11318055421308
- periapsis
- 2.661210917203209
- apoapsis
- 3.520051968667788
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.090631442935499
- mean anomaly
- 119.5243172997284
- longitude of ascending node
- 342.6798836350372
- argument of periapsis
- 40.4096172454478
- absolute magnitude
- 10.6
- rotation period
- 8.47
- time of periapsis
- 2460341.594662139
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
1049 Gotho, provisional designation 1925 RB, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 53 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 14 September 1925, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. Although the name of the asteroid is a masculine German name, it is not known to refer to a particular individual.
Orbit and classification