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
Small body data
(1057) Wanda
- Orbit class
- Main-belt
- Semi-major axis
- 2.890 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.249
- Inclination
- 3.542 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 10.980 H
via Minor Planet Center
Key facts
- Discovered by
- G. Shajn
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 16 August 1925
- Named after
- Wanda Wasilewska , (Polish–Soviet writer)
- Alternative designations
- 1925 QB · 1937 AF, 1950 QY · 1965 WG
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 91.88 yr (33,558 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.6116 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1853 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.8984 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.93 yr (1,802 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 224.08 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 58.92 / day
- Inclination
- 3.5319°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 257.95°
- Argument of perihelion
- 114.20°
- Dimensions
- 40.41 km (derived) , 40.47 ± 2.1 km , 42.72 ± 15.73 km , 42.809 ± 0.834 km , 44.39 ± 0.88 km , 44.657 ± 0.510 km , 48.85 ± 6.58 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 24 h , 28.49 ± 0.03 h , 28.8 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Wanda Wasilewska
- Followed by
- 1058 Grubba
- Follows
- 1056 Azalea
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 44.657
- Orbital period
- 1796.190140634565
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Grigory Abramovich Shajn
- site of astronomical discovery
- Simeiz Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1965 WG
- time of discovery or invention
- 1925-08-16
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.248865316112468
- orbital inclination
- 3.541929552785939
- periapsis
- 2.172136284544905
- apoapsis
- 3.611477043767706
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.891806664156305
- mean anomaly
- 104.1304590247653
- longitude of ascending node
- 257.821734637533
- argument of periapsis
- 114.7313190360558
- absolute magnitude
- 10.99
- albedo
- 0.028
- rotation period
- 29.173
- time of periapsis
- 2460480.9497115556
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1057 Wanda, provisional designation 1925 QB, is a carbonaceous background asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 43 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by Grigory Shajn at the Simeiz Observatory in 1925, and later named after Polish–Soviet writer Wanda Wasilewska. The asteroid has a rotation period of 28.8 hours.
Discovery
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1057 Wanda” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.